PigRickman wrote: ↑May 15, 2019, 9:19 pm
BadnMean wrote: ↑May 15, 2019, 9:00 pm
Unrecognised bias is a thing. It's one (one) of the reasons teams win more often at home. You just have to shrug and try to win anyway. No one is saying it is the single deciding factor in a game. But it just happens.
You cannot watch rugby league and not have seen the Billy Slater rule in effect or gained a "home crowd offside" for your team by booing along with the rest.
Here's the thing, that unrecognised bias thing? It goes both ways. We arent immune from it.
I know that, in fact I specifically stated an example where we could benefit from it in my post.
And then the Broncos get 13 home games... And then media coverage turns some players into untouchables at a grater/more easier rate than it does the raiders. Not tin foil hat stuff but just another 1%er.
There was no study attached but "big team" bias works along the same lines.
None of it is insurmountable but it does exist and yes, it can work for us too. Now that Toots has respect he gets a lot of held down penalties on early rucks after kicks. Hodgo can steal a ball, give it back to him because he thought we was going to get pinged for it and then the other guy gets pinged for not giving Hodgo the ball to play.
I think overall, refs go against raiders to make a point rather than favoured teams. The sin bins over the years have been great examples. We might only see 3-4 a year most years but 1 is always a raider in dubious circumstances.
Edit: I do find the ref whining makes some game day threads insufferable and I try ti make a conscious effort when I watch games with my missus or other friends over here so that I don't seem like such a negative nelly and we can just enjoy the game.