: Thu Apr 09, 2009 10:54 pm  

crucrucrusaders wrote:

The Graham 'play on, play on, four, play the ball' moment was an absolute joke and coupled with the knock on which was missed at the end it totally undid the good job he had done up to then.

That was just unbelievable.
Thaler: Er James, play on, er play on james, WOAH PLAY THE BALL JAMES.

Graham: ARE YOU TAKING THE P**S THALER?

: Thu Apr 09, 2009 11:00 pm  

Ande wrote:

That was just unbelievable.
Thaler: Er James, play on, er play on james, WOAH PLAY THE BALL JAMES.

Graham: ARE YOU TAKING THE P**S THALER?

Tell me about it.

You can just about stomach a bad decision but when a ref tells a player something twice then changes his mind when he does it and penalises him is unbelievable really.

: Thu Apr 09, 2009 11:01 pm  

welcome to the world of ben thaler took you lot long enough

: Fri Apr 10, 2009 12:18 am  

I think he did the same to us against Wire last season at MM, wire player tackled and held up short of the line, thaler calls the tackle, player is released, falls over the try line, try awarded.

: Fri Apr 10, 2009 12:46 am  

Just watching the replay now and spotted another classic from Thaler.

Graham's knock on after interference from Coley. Ref gives a knock on. Graham moans "Never" to the ref, who replies, "You weren't tackled", which of course brings the baffled response from Graham, "I weren't tackled?" to which he replies, "Yeah you weren't tackled and it got knocked out and it's a knock on". Bizarre.

: Fri Apr 10, 2009 12:51 am  

I'm sure I had a cow in the room 'mooooooooo' ing at every tackle.

Re: Mr Thaler and his crew : Fri Apr 10, 2009 1:25 am  

Saddened! wrote:

Is he now a fully professional referee? Did he go through an interview for this post? An aptitude test perhaps?

Some of his decisions tonight were so wrong you could do nothing but laugh. Almost every scrum was started with either Gareth Hock or James Graham starting a sentance with, "How the f@/% is that.." to which Thaler responded with his reasoning and all players within earshot immediately had the same stunned expression

His decision to refer the Gidley try suggested to me that his bottle had gone. He saw that full on, the other officials had no issues and Gidley never let go of the ball at all, yet he refers it just in case he missed something. Then Graham busts a tackle and shimmies away on his knees to the tune of "Play on, play on, play on" from Thaler. When he regains his feet, now not even touching a Wiganer and starts running Thaler changes his mind, "4th play it!". I though Graham was going to eat him.

Then Sam Tomkins knocks in full view of 3 on field officials and the 'voice in the ear' and he decides he's seen a stray go-go-gadget arm from a Saints player that came out of the line, round Sam Tomkins back and naughtily pushed the ball onto the floor. To round it off nicely Bailey hits Clough (?) so high his arm impacted on the forehead then gave him a skinhead and his decision is play on.

If his decisions weren't bad enough his communication with the players was appalling. Every single player left him questioning his sanity or questioning a case of mistaken identity. was the expression of choice tonight.

And the Ainscough video referee decision? Go on then, amuse me. Does the grass count as part of the pitch? If so, it was the most blatant no try ever. White grass all over his knee, the underside of which would have been firmly down. Serious question, is the grass part of the pitch?

Re: Mr Thaler and his crew : Fri Apr 10, 2009 1:35 am  

ROBINSON wrote:

You enjoy the game? Care to comment on how I'm not 100% right?

Ah, you can't

: Fri Apr 10, 2009 2:09 am  

Fine performance from the officials last night.

Graham was a tad unlucky but the change of call was there to be heard.

For the in-touch try, the TV reply indisputably showed a shadow under the player's knee, which proves it wasn't quite touching the ground at the moment the try was scored. Ye cannae change the laws of physics, Jim.

Re: Mr Thaler and his crew : Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:18 am  

ROBINSON wrote:

Really constructive reply.

How can anyone say it was a fair try apart from the forward pass .

FWIW I thought his knee/leg hit the ground before the side line and had bounced back up so that when he put the ball down his knee/s were off the ground.

How Thaler managed to spot Maurie' high shot on Feka and then miss various others (from both sides) i'll never know.

Another good(?) argument on the thread Thaler is better than we are so we can't criticise. Does that mean we can never berate a player for knocking on because they are "better than us"

Some amazing posts on this thread!