I admit at the beginning of the season I was an advocate for instant replay to be brought to the CFL. This season, however, it has failed miserably.
All year long we've seen several problems with the instant replay system. Among them are:
:thdn: Too many challenges in which there were not the proper camera angles for the officials to even make a ruling, leading to "insufficient evidence" to be called on a large amount of challenges.
:thdn: Inconsistant rules which have plagued the entire season. Sometimes a coach can make a challenge on a certain type of call, while other times they can't. Look no further than tonight's game with Saskatchewan. Danny Barret couldn't challenge the simultaneous catch but earlier in the year Don Matthews was allowed to challenge this in a game against Winnipeg.
:thdn: There have been several times this year that the officials on the field have seemingly or even downright obviously made the correct call, only for it to be overturned. I point you to the same "simultaneous catch" when Montreal played Winnipeg that I mentioned in my last point.
:thdn: Coachs using instant replay to generate stoppages in play without having to use a timeout. Finally tonight the officials did something about it. Unfortunately it took them until the final week of the season.
That said I still believe that instant replay can work for the better of the CFL in the future. Hopefully the league can learn from the many mistakes this season and next year we will actually have a competent and reliable instant replay system.
I think the replay review has been a good thing. If it wasn't for the review Arland Bruce would have been denied a TD and Kenyon Rambo would have been awarded a catch.
The system is far from perfect but its a good start. Lets say we didnt have it we would get flooded with posts after each game along the lines of "cfl refs suck it was so clearly XYZ instead of ABC". Its not a perfect system but I hope like the TSN announcers were saying this year they change what htey define as having possession and control of the ball because theres been several calls where the player held on to the ball for a few seconds and then the ball came loose or the player went down and then the ball came loose
Almost as many?
No way!
There have been a few right calls that were overturned but the vast majority were wrong calls made right! As long as there was 1 more wrong made right than the other way around…its worth it.
To me there was such a small variance between right calls and wrong calls using instant replay that the few more right calls being made don't make up for:
-The expenses of instant replay
-The slowing down of the game caused by instant replay
-The inconsistant rules all year long
-Coachs using instant replay in order to create timeouts
So let's agree to disagree. I think this year instant replay has been a failure. Hopefully next year at this time I will feel differently.
Essentially, I agree with those comments.
For the handful of calls they “got right” due to replay, it was not worth it.
And some say it will get better/
Well, the NFL has had it for sometime now and the same criticisms still apply.
But we are unfortunately stuck with it, so all we can hope for is that the referees overall get better to compensate for the abomination of replay.
Instant replay has been a great thing for the league. :thup:
Here are just 3 examples.
The ARGOS could have lost to Winnipeg in 1 game because of a first missed complete pass call which was later over turned for an ARGO T.D. near the end of that game.
Montreal may have lost to the ARGOS if BRUCE's T.D. run had counted.
The replay showed that he went out of bounds.The refs missed that one the first time.
The ARGOS held off Calgary , partly because the review showed that , according to CFL rules , it actually was an incomplete pass.
The vast majority of people that I have heard talk about this on T.V. say that it is great.
The only complaint that I have heard was that it takes too long to do. I think it makes it more exciting. :thup:
I loved the IR system. While some of the coaches struggled with it at times and given that in my experience at least, how many times the decision was not over-turned, I think it put the spotlight on the job that the officals were doing. For my money, I thought officiating this year was among the best I’ve seen in many years.
It all evens out in the end. Without replay there were X number of breaks per game for each team. After replay there are still X number of breaks per game. I don't think replay has improved the officiating one bit, except to add another headache for officials who are second guessed.
