There’s much to figure out with this “Command Centre” nonsense of late.
A) Calls one way that cannot be reviewed, but then when called the other way, they can be reviewed.
B) Calls not made that sometimes are made by the Command Centre.
C) The inconsistent and not transparent use of slow motion replay to make the calls. The standard is clear AND obvious I do believe right? Note that it has to be BOTH and not one or the other.
Sometimes slow motion is not applicable to overturn a call either, for you can spend an extra three minutes with slow motion on many calls and stare at it to overturn it, which it feels like has been happening on occasion.
There’s plenty as noted right there for starters.
Now for B) yes, that play last night that the CC said was a low hit on the qb where the defender was hit by the Ottawa offensive lineman low and then the CC calling this a penalty on the defensive player, yes, CC should have “shut up” on this one.
C) Yes, my wife and me were saying exactly that, if you have to look at the replay a number of times in slow motion to finally overturn a call, no overturn of the call should be made by the CC. That is a big problem. It’s not about getting the call “correct”, it’s about undue time spent with slow motion to overturn a call on the field. Let the officials do their job and the CC should overturn only when a completely obvious wrong call on the field was made. That PI last night again’s the Ottawa defender was way too close to overturn.
There are plenty of examples, such as on that play in the game in Hamilton when the player was ruled down by contact, but it was in fact a fumble and Montreal got screwed on that call in that game as well.
If there is video review, all potential outcomes of a call or non-call should be reviewed.
I’m sure others can come up with so many other examples, especially on plays that involve turnovers or uncalled turnovers.
Ok, just need a bit more clarification then. How does what you are saying in this last post mean what you are saying in A) " Calls one way that cannot be reviewed, but then when called the other way, they can be reviewed."? With the Hamilton and Montreal situation as you mention. And “all potential outcomes” referring to A)?
Whether it was down by contact or not, whether it was a turnover or not, irrespective of whether there was a call on the field or not, et cetera.
Under existing rules, some potential outcomes cannot be reviewed and an otherwise correct call is missed.
Have a framework that whenever video review is in place, review all potential outcomes, such as especially on potential scoring plays or potential turnovers or in the last 5 minutes I say, not merely the last 3 minutes of each half.
That’s about the best that I can explain it. There will be other examples arising in games when this flaw will again be exposed.
So basically then consistency on how video is used by the CC for outcomes of plays, all plays. Agree. Got it and yes “all potential outcomes”, now I understand. Thanks. And again must agree here with you describing this as a “flaw” with how video replay is used. I would like to see the TSN panel discuss this.
There’s also this flaw in the current system, on which TSN needs a great re-education as well so they can properly and easily explain it when we are watching games:
This is actually a major issue - the fact that the host broadcaster doesnt have a clear understanding of the rules is what also makes these decisions appear worse than they are.
Actually that is a very solid point I would not even have thought of. For all we know, one of the CC staff could have been sick and not come into work for this game so the CFL put in a 16 year old cameraman on duty as a fill-in. With little or no training. Maybe we should know the names of the CC staff for each game as we know the names of the officials on the field.
I believe that we need to look at, specifically, Australian NRL rugby league for how to use video review.
I also believe they need to review PI in real time only - no slow motion.
Our on field officials need to be able to call for video review AND be involved in calls. Good lord but it can not be that hard to connect “command centre” to the video display in every stadium and replay so the referee is the referee, and give us audio so we can hear the decision process.
Last but not least - open up the rule book for calls to be made. It was a cut block that sent the Rider player into Crum. What should have happened is - apply both penalties and replay the down. But replay has their hands tied with what they can call.
But if it is a block, even in the back, that propels a D-Player into the QB I believe they just ignore the foul … should be the same in this case … no need to replay the down.
And such limited scope as you mention relates back, I think, to @Paolo_X point in the first post, point A) which points to inconsistency within “all potential outcomes” as he mentions and at the end of the day, again as he mention, it’s a flaw. A limited scope is a flaw of sorts. Which should be able to be corrected, perhaps not within the season but definitely in the off season and I think this actually needs a committee or sub-committee within the league and officials to sort this mess out. And report back to the BOG. It points to the ultimate integrity of the league in some aspects. The league needs to look at this. The TSN people are confused at times with this as we are and I wouldn’t be surprised even the league itself gets a bit confused.
The PI and this RTP were both good calls. In fact the RTP was obvious in real time. You think the time taken to review it was bad? Think i spent two minutes wondering if they would. The live feed didn’t have a good shot of the PI however.
In any case the RTP HAD the feel of a higher up calling the command center and asking they review the play. I’m paranoid by nature so take it for what’s it’s worth lol.
Final thought. Why didn’t the refs have a better command of the field?
I have been saying fro a couple years at least that the video review needs an overhaul.
Almost every rugby league on the face of the earth has better video review and review processes than the CFL does. And play in most of them is non stop, and video review is continuous, but uses all cameras if play is stopped to review play or a scoring play.
It is seamless and not inhibited by the call this don’t call that the CFL uses.
It’s 2024. Video review works. We have the facilities to communicate between officials and CC. We have the ability to have the referee on field see what CC sees and be part of the decision process. And we should have audio so we understand why the call was made like it was.
Doing it that way leads to consistency on calls. Because to understand why the call was made that way, means the next one gets judged the same way…
And let’s not underestimate what @StillHavingFun mentions above “Why didn’t the refs have a better command of the field?”. This is an excellent point with regards to this and what exactly is the relationship between the league, the CC and the refs on the field and TSN for that matter? Ok, I know this is only sports and doesn’t need some sort of “federal investigation” but at the very least what needs to happen in the off-season is some sort of committee that reports to the BOG and has a report that has substance. Not talking about a memo sort of thing or a “2 page report” but a report with substance that has full integrity that the BOG would take serious.
The CC should only review penalties that are challenged. If a team has no challeges left, sorry. The only exception might be a missed blatant attempt to injure an opposing player.
All reviews should be no slower than half speed. If you can’t make a determination from that, call on the field stands.
Refs should have to announce the call on the field before communicating with the CC. When I’m at a game, too often, I see the ref not make a call on the field and you can see they are talking to command to help them so they don’t look like complete fools. The non fumble in Hamilton last week, there was no announce call at the time of the play. We assumed they were reviewing the play, but we had no idea what the initial call was.
The NFL has been down the Command Centre road before and it didnt take long for them to determine that it doesnt work
. For this and other reasons I would sooner watch NFL games than CFL. Game outcome determining decisions from hidden and error prone entities have no place in any sport or league.
