TUESDAY the phone rings at Tony Archer’s desk.

Archer is the NRL’s referees boss. He knows the only thing more painful than walking over and smacking his forehead into the coathook on the back of his door is picking up that phone, for at the other end is an angry NRL coach.

On Tuesday it is Brad Arthur. A day earlier Arthur sat through 70 minutes of hard-slog football as Parramatta hung on to a skinny 6-4 lead and tried to defend its way to victory.

Then the Tigers went left, a standard block play, before the ball found Pat Richards and he sprinkled a little star dust on a dour afternoon.

“It wasn’t a try,” Arthur said.

Archer and Arthur argued for a while, before at some point it was pointed out that it was only one try in a 22-6 result.

Arthur’s despair zoomed to DEFCON 1. The reality was the try broke his Parramatta Eels. After defending for so long they no longer had anything left to come back with and besides, it shouldn’t have been a try anyway.

Archer went away and looked at the vision and came back and called Arthur, telling him yes, he was right.

It should not have been a try.

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Under the criteria, James Tedesco took the ball behind a lead runner making the play illegal.

Since round one Des Hasler has sent “18 or 20” queries to Archer, small video clips with a small note: Why wasn’t that a penalty for incorrect play-the-ball? What happened with that obstruction?

Forty-eight per cent of the time Archer has called back, according to Hasler, saying they made the incorrect call.

At some point we need to end this.

By seeking perfection in an imperfect game the NRL and its referees have created a problem that is worsening.

Just this week NSW Rugby League chairman Dr George Peponis said officiating had worsened in the past 18 months.

There is no doubt it was catalyst for last Friday’s madness, even though just a small revision was required to show the referees got that one exactly right.

Still, by going through their checklists on every try, and almost every decision, are we really making it better?

media_camera Referee Gerard Sutton struggles to contain David Klemmer and James Graham.

Advances in technology for the home viewer have reached the point where they no longer add to the spectacle as much as provide fuel for their anger.

Accuracy might have improved a couple of percentage points, but the feel for the game is being lost, arguing the overall product is worse.

“What they need is empathy,” Hasler said on Wednesday. “That’s what’s missing.”

Thankfully, Hasler has a solution. It is no Band-Aid so immediately you like it.

He believes the NRL needs to look at developing coaches at younger levels, through school programs and into university programs that could run as part of existing sports degrees and be a pathway to professional officials. It profiles personalities at each level, weeding out the ill-fitting and developing the right people for a career in the game.

Certainly officials are being left behind, as hard as they work.

Bob Fulton has loaned his understanding to the referees since last spring and is certain referees need to be treated like a 17th club.

He believes that much investment is needed to ensure they remain pace with the game, which moves at frightening speed.

It is a commitment, and a significant one, but it’s the kind of thinking the NRL needs to move on quickly.

Until then its just Band-Aids, which never seems to stem the bad blood.