{"id":101051,"date":"2021-07-16T09:32:44","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T09:32:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=101051"},"modified":"2021-07-16T15:00:32","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T15:00:32","slug":"johns-radical-answer-to-ridiculous-origin-frenzy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=101051","title":{"rendered":"Johns' radical answer to 'ridiculous' Origin frenzy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns has bemoaned the extreme involvement of referee Gerard Sutton in State of Origin III<\/a> and floated a radical move.<\/p>\n

Johns and former NSW coach Phil Gould were among the critics of Sutton's refereeing on the night of the Gold Coast clash<\/a>, in which the whistle-blower awarded 21 penalties during the Maroons' 20-18 win over the Blues<\/a> on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

However, Johns is strong in his stance that Sutton isn't to blame, instead insisting that the Bunker is over-instructing through the ear piece.<\/p>\n

The legendary Blues halfback says referees both in Origin and the NRL should be given full reign over incidents during play, while he's also suggested a second referee, who doesn't have a whistle, is introduced to monitor the ruck.<\/p>\n

"The referees are imposing themselves too much on the game. The six-to-go has got to the stage where it's far too extreme," Johns said on Wide World of Sports' Immortal Behaviour<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

"In the 80 minutes (in Origin III) there were 21 penalties, which I think is far too much … It's just ridiculous at that level.<\/p>\n

"The Bunker has to stop imposing itself on the game. Let the referee feel the game and referee. They should not be tipping to the referee about anything."<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Under the two-referee system used from 2009 until the 2020 competition restart, there was a 'dominant official' and a 'sidekick', but both carried a whistle.<\/p>\n

"I think we should experiment with bringing the second referee back but they don't have a whistle. And their primary job, or their whole job, is to control the ruck," Johns said.<\/p>\n

"It could be a young referee about to come into first grade. It'd be a great experience for them to get out there, which then frees up the dominant referee to be watching the markers and the off-sides and that sort of stuff.<\/p>\n

"I just think we need another set of eyes on the field without a whistle controlling the ruck. At the moment the person doing that is the Bunker, who hasn't got a feel for the game."<\/p>\n

Johns recalled the exceptional refereeing of Bill Harrigan, a whistle-blower from the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s who's widely regarded the greatest in history.<\/p>\n

After officiating all three games of the 2021 series, Sutton is actually equal with Harrigan as the most-capped Origin referee ever.<\/p>\n

Harrigan refereed 393 first-grade games, 25 Tests and 21 Origin matches, before calling time on his career in 2003.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Origin for me was at its best in the early '90s and mid-'90s and maybe the early 2000s. The referee was Bill Harrigan," Johns said.<\/p>\n

"He would referee the game, he would manage the game, he had a mindset where he would facilitate the game. He'd blow two, maybe three, maybe four penalties (in a game).<\/p>\n

"Twenty-one penalties in an Origin game – it is just far too many."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns has bemoaned the extreme involvement of referee Gerard Sutton in State of Origin III and floated a radical move. Johns […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101051"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=101051"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101051\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101055,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101051\/revisions\/101055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=101051"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=101051"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=101051"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}