Jon Wilkin tees off on ‘dull’ aspect of Super League

Sky Sports pundit Jon Wilkin has proposed a new rule for Super League and also hit out at how the video referee is used, claiming it makes for “dull television”.

The 2024 season is the first Super League campaign in which every game has the use of a video referee following the new Sky Sports’ TV deal, however, the way that it has been used has come in for criticism from fans and pundits.

Games have generally taken longer to finish with match officials checking with the video referee on the majority of tries, with the system  rarely overturning an on-field decision.

It came in for stick on Friday night when Hull KR had a try ruled out by both the on-field and video referee despite evidence suggesting that there was no knock-on. Sky Sports presenter Brian Carney took serious issue as he claimed it was a clear try.

Now, Jon Wilkin has labelled the system “crazy” and argued that it makes for “dull television” as he took the opportunity to question the system on his and Jenna Brooks’ podcast, The Bench with Jenna and Jon.

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Does Super League need to change how the video referee operates?

After guest Jai Field had lamented the number of stoppages in Super League relating to officials looking at yellow cards, Jon Wilkin called out the video referees particularly.

“The stoppages in the game, slowing the game down, it’s crazy,” the former St Helens captain declared.

“The video referee process blows my tiny little mind, like, how long it takes. I think there was a try the other week and if they had just gone to the end of it, it was a no-try, but they’re analysing who touched it, who touched it, who touched it. Have we got a different angle? Who’s touched it? Can’t see anything there.

“I’m watching it, thinking this is the most boring TV I’ve ever seen. It’s dull, isn’t it?

“All the time there’s a game in the background that people want to watch. Let’s get back to that quick so let’s put a stopwatch on the video ref.”

Wilkin proposes new Super League rule

As well as teeing off on the video referee and how it’s used, Jon Wilkin also put forward an idea on a possible rule change to prevent teams from consistently committing fouls that force ‘six agains’.

A ‘six again’ is given if a penalty is committed outside a team’s own 40 metres meaning plenty of sides will commit them inside their own 20 as they defend the try line, often laying on or becoming too involved at the ruck to try and slow their opponents down.

Wilkin went on to argue that teams collectively should be punished for committing too many of those offences, arguing opponents should be able to elect a player on the offending team to be sin-binned.

He explained: “I was thinking with set restarts now, teams can just give away set restarts willy-nilly, right? All the set restarts near the line just sort of disrupt the game.

“I was thinking that if you get to five set restarts in a game, you get a team yellow card and the opposition team gets to pick who goes off for 10 minutes. You’d almost take it as pride if you got sin binned in, wouldn’t you?

“If you get to 10 set restarts, you get a team red card, and they can pick.”