Rivals Daryl Powell and Danny McGuire will be on opposing sides at Super League Magic Weekend but they have joined forces in a plea for referees to keep red and yellow cards in their pocket at Newcastle’s Magic Weekend.
Wakefield Trinity’s Powell and McGuire, of Castleford Tigers, will go head to head on Sunday in the final game of Super League Magic Weekend but they are keen for the derby showdown at St James’ Park to be 13 versus 13 throughout.
Recent Betfred Super League rounds have seen a spate of sin-binnings and sendings-off, including three yellow cards when Trinity were beaten at Catalans Dragons last weekend and one for Tigers during their away win against Huddersfield Giants.
Speaking after the round nine defeat by Hull KR, when both sides had a player dismissed, Leeds Rhinos boss Brad Arthur said he doesn’t know what more he can do to keep 13 players on the field – and Powell and McGuire share his concern.
Coaches call for cards to be kept in pockets at Super League Magic Weekend
The Tigers coach feels most of the tackles resulting in cards are “accidents”. He said: “The game is so quick and fast and things change so quickly, you can make a tackle in one position and the player moves.
“There needs to be a bit more understanding around that. If someone runs in with a forearm, looking to hit someone, I want that suspended, but there has got to be an understanding of change of body positions.”
But McGuire stressed the issue isn’t at the top of his agenda ahead of Sunday. “I can’t worry about it too much,” he insisted.
“There’s too many things that take up a coach’s time to be worrying about things you can’t control. You’ll get some calls that go for you and some that go against you.”
Powell stressed some of the tackles resulting in red or yellow cards are “pretty hard to stop”.
He said: “For me, it has gone too far.
“Something has got to change because games are going on too long, everyone is talking about video referees and we have got a great game we should be focusing on.
“We don’t want swinging arms, but there’s a lot of things happening in the game. We’ve got to create positive stories.”
Who will have the best celebrations at #MagicWKND? 🤔@Betfred will be donating £180 for every try celebration at St James’ Park this weekend 🙌#SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/XcQTegXsAk
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) May 1, 2025
Eric T Cat
May 3, 2025 at 9:06 pm
Went really well until Lewis Murphy got ten minutes for jumping in the air. That was a patently ridiculous decision, in football that referee Smith and video ref Thaler would find themselves with a quiet weekend! That wasn’t foul play, it was an accident, you cannot jump that high without extending your legs. The video referee should not be allowed to go looking for incidents like that, an absolute disgrave, makes a joke of the sport.