I agree with everything you said. It's a simple game, let's keep it that way.
I like some of the cool, lesser-known rules (the ones that come into play once a season if you're lucky), and they're perfectly fine the way they are. The stuff that we see every single game needs some trimming back. I don't think it's always a case of the rules actually being complicated, I think they're being allowed to take liberties with some of the rules, when they shouldn't.
Kicking Harrigan and Raper to the curb and finding some lesser idiots to take their place, streamline some shit and remind the refs what their goddamn job is, would be a good start.
On the video ref shit, there was at least one occasion I saw earlier in the year which was a real worry, moreso than usual. I forget which game it was, but Tony Archer sent something upstairs. While it was under review, Archer was watching the screen displaying the replay of events. The decision was "Ref's Call" and Archer made a decision based on what he saw on the screen. There was no possible way standing where he was when it happened, that he could have made the call that he did. It's fucking despicable, we don't have two video referees, yet Archer decided he'd try and act like one.
