sockwithaticket wrote: ↑Sun Feb 20, 2022 7:42 pm
Dean Richards' post-match comments were a disgrace. Accused the officials of either showing favouritism or not knowing what they were doing and one of his main examples was arguing that the Hodge incident shouldn't have been a red.
I don't catch Falcons very often, but when I do i feel like he's always moaning about the officiating. Here's an idea, Dean: be better. Newcastle are a poor team and they have been for ages, that one season they made a run to the playoffs out of nowhere looks more and more anamalous. Without that, their record of basement dwelling is on a par with Worcester's and actually features one more relegation in the last decade.
One of his other examples was that how can you be penalised for jumping across the line when the throw in isn't straight. There is also an arguement that Ridley was favouring Chiefs at scrum time, there were a couple of later resets that had it been the Falcons front row going up or the prop going full onto his stomach because he was long legged it would have been a penalty to Chiefs and not merely a reset.
I disagree with his view that the red card was harsh, it was as certain a red as you will see and unfortunately Richards has form for this sort of whinging post defeat and its been annoying the locals for a number of seasons now.
Falcons personality as a team probably reflects the DORs attitude to the game, the season we did reach the playoffs we managed to add a decent attacking edge to the gritty arm wrestle defence, however with probably the smallest budget in the league and an apparent long term neglect to the academy in the past (thankfully that appears to have been addressed in the last few years) we cannot afford to sign top level players or even retain the ones that we pick up as a bit of a bargain as they are easy picking for richer clubs. This then manifests into the fluctuation of performance levels and results and as the club fails to kick on leads to the better players leaving and the circle starting again.