It was a mess. Fast forward to this year, and NRL coaches were banned from even mentioning referees. Thanks to Des Hasler, they will thenceforth be known as Voldemorts. I am looking forward to asking Des on Friday night "how did the Voldemorts go this evening?". But in tandem with the tightening noose of censorship, Archer not only starts answering his phone but begins weekly video chats with NRL media manager Glenn Jackson, formerly of this parish. You could criticise him for only answering questions about which he has been forewarned by a fellow NRL employee – but he is also making himself more available to independent media this year It's what they call a "charm offensive" in the classics.

Suddenly, the only people talking about referees are …. Referees! The only person assessing the performance of someone in a specific role is their workmates! Good work if you can get it. As a journalist, I cannot support anything that inhibits free speech. But I do profess a sneering admiration for the way the NRL has gone on the front foot over something that has always been predictably downbeat. Whinging about referees is one of those few things in life that is simultaneously newsworthy and boring. It's a symptom of our dislike for authority in this country and in this sport and it is rather irrational most of the time. It's also a symptom of the tunnel vision that holds the game back. It would be OK if we all saw bagging refs as the pantomime that it is but there seems a distinct lack of the requisite perspective to do that. ----------------

Of course Sosaia Feki should have been sent to the sin bin. The punching ban is useless in policing fights if all it does is punish the guy who threw the first one. A fight, by definition, has more than one combatant! If you are tackled high, is it OK to get up and execute a coat hanger on your assailant? No – you would be in a lot of trouble. If you were tripped and got up and tripped the other guy – same thing. Why is punching the only offence for which retaliation is OK? And anyway, standing up for yourself is over-rated. ----------------