Rugby League: How the refs will run the game

By PETER JESSUP

The introduction of the "golden point" will likely have little impact on the run of this NRL season.

Of greater influence on the result will be the way referees rule on gang-tackling, the technique employed by the premiership-winning Roosters with brutal effect at the end of last season.

The new referee's boss, Robert Finch, has already issued direct instruction to referees on how to rule the tackle and play-the-ball. Club chief executives discussed limiting the number of players allowed to go into a tackle.

But what could you do to stop big Bulldog Willie Mason bar throwing more bodies at him, some asked.

So three- and-four-man tackles will be prevalent this year - at least until someone works out how to regularly defeat the mass-attack, cut-off style defence the Roosters built.

The multiple hits throw the ball-carrier back and allow him to be rolled, slowing the play-the-ball, stifling attacking momentum and reducing the chance of the attackers working set plays.

Chase the kicker down and reduce his gain and you play the game at the opponent's end of the field all the time.

Finch, 46, won two grand finals as a player with Canberra before taking the role of football manager at several clubs and was last back at the Raiders. Among initiatives he has taken that have already stirred things up are fitness and football sessions for the referees. He has dropped three video referees - Peter Filmer, John Goucher and Ian Parnaby - who used to get A$600 a game - and instead will use the three salaried NRL referees Bill Harrigan, Tim Mander and Steve Clark, along with Mick Stone, Graeme West, Phil Cooley, Eddie and Chris Ward.

Finch has told the referees to rule with consistency through the season, that there will be no "blitzes" of any single aspect of the game.

Finch expects the play-the-ball to be effected within three to four seconds and if it is not has advised the referees to penalise.

The whistlers should not debate their decisions with captains. They should take harsh action against players who waste time before the taking of an in-goal drop-out.

Players are generally bigger this year, clubs working on the theory that the gang-tackling will require more upper-body strength from ball-carriers so they are able to shrug tackles and off-load.

The other way to beat it, of course, is speed - getting the ball wide past the multiple defenders around the ruck. That can be done by the likes of the Jones/Johns "banana kick". Powerful centres will play a bigger part this season.

The golden point might be a one-season wonder. The Queensland Rugby league is against its use in State of Origin matches, though New South Wales has already indicated it will use superior numbers on the Australian board to out-vote it on the issue.

It's hard to understand why the NRL wanted extra time, which eats into television schedules, when barely a handful of matches end in ties. Last season it was five, in 2001 it was 10 and in 2000 there were five.

So few of the 168 games played over 26 rounds between now and the end of September will come down to golden point decision.

Would you want the grand final decided that way?

Guidelines - The tackle issue prompted these guidelines:

* No part of a defender's body is to be in front of the referee at the 10m line

* The defence can move when the ball is behind the foot of the attacker who is playing the ball

* A dominant tackle will be called for the defence if the ball-carrier surrenders or dives at the feet of defenders, allowing the defence more time to re-set.

NRL points table and fixtures