After Round One of the Betfred Super League, there has been a massive focus on disciplinary including after the game between Leeds Rhinos and Salford Red Devils.
Though one of the smaller problems in terms of disciplinary in week one, it raised questions about head contact after the yellow card to Ryan Brierley as well as the treatment of the incident involving Paul Momirovski which saw play stopped for a number of minutes as the video referee assessed the situation and he was yellow carded only to not receive a ban.
Now Head Coach Rohan Smith has chimed in on the debate and called for the Match Review Panel to be left in charge of the incidents like this as he also called for consistency as well:
“I guess the early stages of every season in lots of different sports. Over the years, you’re trying to establish maybe new interpretations or new rules and then you reserve your judgment until you’re a month or six weeks past the end of the season and you see if there’s a bit of rhythm or a bit of consistency.
“I think the RFL have been clear with their directive, the actual process around that. I think the match review panel have their job to do on a Monday. And sometimes the job should be left till then.
“But referees obviously with the support of the video ref have the opportunity there to get a replay or two and support the on-field decision. But let’s see how it is in a month or six weeks. Early in the season, I think the timing of the players is maybe a bit out as well. Let’s hope it all settles down and we’ve got the best players on the field as often as possible for all the teams.”
Leeds Rhinos Head Coach addresses performance
Super League head coach Rohan Smith has bemoaned the heavy use of the video referee in his team’s pre-season game.
Asked about performance from Round One against Salford Red Devils, Smith said: “Very much, that was last week, that was the game. I don’t think it’s never going to get everything perfect every week. Sometimes you can over-focus on things moving forward and then you lose something else that you did well.”
He also looked ahead to this difficult fixture against Hull KR: “So, we’re keen to get there and experience a tough game. It sounds like the weather conditions are going to be pretty wild, like maybe we were there last year. So, we want to go and battle hard and then see if the conditions and the flow of the game will allow us to extend our footy a little bit. I thought we played a good steady game last week in the main. We had some threat but I think there’s a lot more in us but we’ll see if the conditions allow that.”
