Phil Gould has expressed concern for the amount of scrutiny one-referee may face in the revamped NRL season and warned the game's officials about overusing the new six-again rule.
For the first time since 2008, the NRL will have one referee controlling matches with the addition of the new six-again call for ruck infringements instead of penalties.
The change in structure to officiating was a financial move that may save the game millions this year alone, but it comes with a lot of risk and fierce opposition from coaches and players.
Leading voices in the game argue the new rules changes the fabric of the contest and will slow down the ruck, with no pocket referee charged solely to look after the tackle and wrestle.
New ruck rules have been designed to make the game quicker because the referee will instantly wave six again when there's an infringement, stopping teams from being able to reset their lines.
The official will also have the power to blow a penalty or sin bin a player for repeated infringements, in a bid to stop teams from lying in the ruck early in tackle counts.
Speaking on Wide World of Sports' Six Tackles with Gus podcast, Gould welcomed the changes and declared the six-again option is "potentially a really good move".
However, how one single referee handles the scrutiny of the job is something that does concern the former Penrith GM. He highlighted how the whistle-blowers in the game now have been brought up in the two-referee model and some of the traits learnt from that system will be difficult to ignore.
"We've had two referees for a decade now," he said. "Every time we go to a representative fixture people haven't woken up until ten minutes into the second half that we've only got one referee. It's never spoken about prior to the game and it's never the bane of analysis during or after the game.
"I never believed in the two-referee system. The referees did a good job to cope with it themselves. They got themselves into a process my criticism is they've refereed a process they haven't refereed rugby league. And there is far more scope for the game if there is one official, and the officials keep interrupting the contest with pedantic penalties and interpretations trying to impress their coach rather than allow the players contribute to the spectacle.
"Rugby league is a great game if it's allowed to flow and have momentum. The referee's job is to save people hitting each other with an axe and keeping players safe."
Gould said rugby league "took a backward turn" when both coaches and referees shifted their focus on the ruck. It made the the game "too technical" according to the legendary coach. With the Eels and Broncos kicking off proceedings on Thursday night, he urged the referees to be simplistic in their approach.
"If the coaches want to whinge about play-the-balls and then find another way to attack stop worrying about the speed of the play-the-ball," he said.
"You're the blokes that are coaching the slow play-the balls then you complain when the opposition do it to you. It's not up to the referee to dictate the speed of the game. That's up to the coaches and the players. You don't deserve speed in the game if you just tuck the ball under your arm and run one out into the opposition forward pack. You deserve to be swallowed up and slowed down.
"I'm on the referee's side with this provided they don't panic this weekend and blow a plethora of penalties because they're trying to interpret what their role is in the game. If you give a couple of penalties in the play-the-ball just to give six-again that will wake them up more than anything.
"What I don't want to see is the referees overuse this tool to a point when after three penalties we're going to start sin-binning players every game thinking they've got to get the message through."
from WWOS http://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/concerns-for-one-referee-criticism-phil-gould/e74b31a4-b24b-4798-8d3f-49e198629137
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