sport news Secret document reveals the RIDICULOUS rules NRL referees have to follow to ... trends now
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NRL referees are being treated like 'robots' who aren't allowed have a 'feel for the game' after an officiating document was leaked highlighting how every single aspect of a whistleblower's job is controlled down to the last consonant.
That's the view of Roosters premiership winner and former NRL referee Luke Phillips, who told 2GB's Continuous Call team he grew frustrated during his time in the league's elite officiating team when all he wanted was for the game to flow.
'I wanted to have a nil-all penalty count and when it would end up 2-1, they would point out the penalties I should have blown during the game and when I challenged them on it, by explaining why I allowed it to continue from a footy point of view, they said it put more pressure on the referee the following week.
'I'd be in trouble for not giving penalties when I didn't want to give them.'
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves got binned for swearing at the ref last weekend - but refs can be dropped if they don't use some very precise language when they speak to players
Channel 9 pundit Mark Levy called the refereeing ranks a 'fair dinkum dictatorship' after revealing he'd been given access to a leaked document that confirms just how much every aspect of officiating is nitpicked.
In the secret document, there is a set vocabulary a referee must use with every single tackle in a game.
