According to the Warrington board it is Mr Silverwood.
Shame as I thought Thaler might have got it.
Hopefully he will even out the 50/50 calls this Saturday and make up for the wrong calls from last week

Ref Silverwood
Video Ref BENTham
TJ James Child & Clint Sharrad
Reserve Ref - Thaler

Honestly thought this would be Ben Thaler's gig after his performances this year.

Horrible news.

Just been on the rfl site, it's true. Can't say im overly happy with it as both ref and vid ref seem to have it in for us in big games, time will tell I suppose. I hope nothing happens to Mr Silverwood between now and ko time

Thaler had a terrible game (both ways) for Catalans vs Leeds, and then there was the howler in the semi-final. The boards of all clubs but Leeds would have combusted if he got the gig.

Surprised it's not Ganson, but Silverwood generally means a slower play-the-ball and defenders getting away with a bit more so we have to adapt accordingly.

Thaler is clearly on the rise. His time will surely come.

However his offside call against St Helens when they had every right to pressure Warrington into the corner was IMO poor and the fact Warrington scored off the resulting penalty proved a turning point in the contest. One that St Helens never recovered from.

That came off the back of McDermott's after-match comments at Wigan where he asked such passages be allowed to conclude without unneccesary interference from the officials. Don't know if the rules currently allow for a ball spilled at the PTB to be handed back rather than penalised as was the case at the DW but I fully understood where McDermott was coming from when applying his plea to the incident at Langtree Park the following night.

The offside call appeared marginal from the footage and why would an official wish to suddenly become almost uniquely pedantic in that situation?

Bad news yes, espcially considering the amount of wrong decisions he made in the game last Friday. However, of far more dissapointment to me is the appointment of Warrington fan and consistenly incorrect decision maker, of Bentham as video ref.

Re the video referee: Bentham came up through the Warrington refereeing society (although apparently a Leigh fan) and was the referee in charge when Warrington ended their 9 year 11 month 25+ match drought V St Helens but I wouldn't personally read any significance in to that.

Silverwood wants to win both cups for Warrington.

This.

does it really matter who the ref is? we'll beat 14 if its needed. If the players dwell on it it'll surely fire them up more than anything. With it being a grand final the ref has to be on his toes and not make a c0ck up as theres many beady eyes watching.

Im just disappointed that Child keeps running the line against us. he seems to run the line in a lot of our games

Even the Wigan fans felt Silverwood sided with them and that`s saying something.
Was it Silverwood and Bentham at Wembley?
If not Thaler I would have gone for St Ganson with Silverwood 3rd choice.
Whilst I agree that the ref should not come into us winning or not.
You have to say that some poor calls can give momentum to the opposition or worse still gift them a try.
The ref does not come into it if we win by plenty which is unlikely this Saturday.