NRL Agree to interchange refs

The NRL Annual Conference has today agreed to the introduction of interchange referees over the first 5 weeks of the Telstra Premiership.

Team coaches, player representatives, and club chairmen today joined club CEOs for a forum on on-field issues and gave their backing to the interchange trial.

Under the plan, interchange will be available in one game per round for the first five weeks of the 2005 Telstra Premiership.It would be up to the referees? coach to decide when, or even if a referee should be given a ?break? during a match.

NRL Referees? coach Robert Finch believes the programme will help guard against physical and mental fatigue, provide a pressure release in difficult matches, assist in blooding new talent, expand the base of experienced referees, and increase both longevity and consistency.

"We don?t make the interchange for the sake of making it and the state of the game will always have to be taken into account," Mr Finch explained.

"But if the opportunity is there to interchange the referee it gives the more senior guy who started the match a break and the less experienced referee an important opportunity.

"Referees will tell you that the most difficult period is to establish the flow of the game and the senior referee will have had the job of doing that.

"There?s no question that the physical training being undertaken by referees today means that the area we are really looking to is mental fatigue rather than tiredness but it is an important factor.

"It?s likely the senior referees would not be a part of the trial but our younger guys could really benefit from it.

"Refereeing is an area of enormous pressure and we have to make sure we are creating opportunities to develop and encourage them."

Mr Finch said that while the option of having two referees on the field had also been considered but had been ruled out at this stage.

He said two referees on field at the same time had been trialed many times over the last 20 years and that through a range of different models it had proven to be of no real benefit.

After a maximum of five weeks, the NRL will review the trial and receive feedback from clubs before deciding whether to make it a regular feature.

"We aren?t looking to introduce interchange in every match," Mr Finch explained.

"But it is the sort of programme that, if it works, we could expand as we have sufficient new referees coming through."

As a result of today?s meeting Mr Finch will also put together further recommendations in relation to the issues governing the speed of the play the ball and the issue of surrender tackles and the stripping rule.

Mr Finch produced statistics that showed the speed of the play the ball had increased 6% in the last season and that there had been an increase in dummy half and ?one-out? runners in the game.

Penrith?s Luke Priddis raised the issue that there needed to be greater reward for ?classic? tackling styles.

"The sort of side on below the waist tackle we teach kids doesn?t qualify as a dominant tackle," he pointed out.

The Roosters Ricky Stuart agreed that there had to be further efforts to discourage the "surrender" style tackle.

It was felt that in relation to the stripping rule, there should only be action from the referee where a clear breach had occurred.

It was agreed that Mr Finch should prepare guidelines on these matters to be tabled at the pre-season discussions with coaches.

After some discussion it was felt that there should be no change to the existing powers of the video referee.

It was also agreed at today?s meeting that the ?shot clock? rime limit for goal kicking be extended by 10sec to 100sec.

Statistics showed that the shot clock had made no real difference to kicking accuracy and that in 2004 only 23 players had been fined. All but three of those were for attempts that had breached the 90 second mark by 10 seconds or less.

The issue of the length of the season was also canvassed at today?s meeting and was acknowledged that there needed to be a formal discussion process between the ARL, the players and the RLPA before the ARL met with New Zealand and Great Britain to confirm the 2005series.

It was also agreed that the June 30 anti tampering date, while not a perfect system, would not be changed.