Rugby League: Rivals are sharing out the video calls

By PETER JESSUP

There will be one Australian video referee ruling on tomorrow night's close calls and one from New Zealand - a recipe for a Mexican stand-off, you might think.

Phil Cooley represents the transtasman cousins and Alan Caddy is our guy. He's not fazed by the prospect of a difference of opinion.

With five years experience as a premiership touch judge, sometimes opposite Cooley as they were in the 2000 State of Origin, Caddy is familiar with the other officials and the procedures.

New Zealand referee and touch judge Arthur Clark will run one line while Australian Darren Goucher flags the other under Bill Harrigan's whistling.

Caddy, 50, and Cooley are yet to meet to sort out the procedural details of their role. "If there's a close one we'll discuss it, work it out."

They can call on the Foxtel television producer to replay any angle they want as many times as they want it. The viewers at home and the crowd watching the big screen see what the video ref asks for.

"We have to go on what we have," Caddy said. "If we disagree ... well, we haven't decided what's going to happen yet. Maybe he will have the final say in Sydney and I will have the final say in New Zealand."

The Kangaroos play here in mid-October before their tour of Britain and France.

Caddy admits to making armchair decisions like every other football fan and to sometimes being proved wrong when another camera angle is produced later.

"We're under pressure to call it as quickly as we can. But there's no time limit. We'll call for more angles if we want to - obviously we want to get it right."

The decision-making time that sometimes seems to be an age for fans passes in a flash for the reviewers, he said.

The NRL match officials meet regularly to discuss controversial decisions and the application of rules, which sometimes results in an adjustment of the rulings process.

They are all under examination from referees' boss Robert Finch, who has already demonstrated his hand by dropping several whistlers, touch judges and video reviewers for varying periods this season.

The involvement of the New Zealand officials comes after a long international break during which the Australians claimed there were no New Zealanders up to it, and at the instigation of New Zealand Rugby League boss Selwyn Pearson.

Pearson said he had asked ARL opposite Colin Love: "How are we going to show the league world we're doing things together when there's an Australian referee, Australian touch judges and an Australian video ref?"

Pearson said he had no argument against Harrigan. "He's the best." But the New Zealand officials wouldn't get better if not given a chance to earn an NRL starting spot.