NRL's defiant response to refereeing backlash after admission about Stephen Crichton incident
One Bunker official is set to pay the price for a 'poor judgment call'.
The NRL's head of football Graham Annesley has defended his referees in the wake of enormous backlash, despite admitting the Bunker official who allowed Bulldogs captain Stephen Crichton to stay on the field for a high tackle against the Warriors got it wrong. Round 25 of the NRL dished up a number of contentious calls - particularly around high shots and sin bins - after three Manly players were sent for 10 in the opening game of the round.
That set the precedent for many fans who were then shocked to see Crichton remain on the field despite collecting Roger Tuivasa-Sheck with a shoulder to the head that knocked the Warriors star out of the contest. The incident appeared worse than a hit from Manly's Haumole Olakau'atu the previous night that saw the Sea Eagles forward controversially binned, but the bunker official decided Crichton's did not warrant 10 in the bin.
However, Annesley admitted in his weekly briefing on Monday that Bunker official Liam Kennedy got the call wrong and suggested he would be stood down this week for a "poor judgment call". The Crichton incident was among a season-high 30 penalties for high contact in round 25 in what has become an alarming trend in the game.
“We have listened to the audio, and it’s purely a judgment error,” Annesley explained. “The Bunker official involved just didn’t give due consideration to the impact of the tackle. They have criteria that they look at, but they have to make an assessment of how serious that particular incident was.
“It was purely a poor judgment call. A lot of time and effort goes into getting the referees and the match review committee on the same page with these things. Sometimes people’s judgment lets them down, and that’s what happened in this case. We haven’t done appointments yet, but you can probably gauge from my comments that it was a serious error.”
Gold Coast Titans coach Des Hasler hit out on Monday at the "confusion" that players, coaches and fans currently have around what constitutes a high tackle, and what is likely to result in a player going on report or being sent to the bin. And the veteran mentor echoed the sentiments of many disgruntled fans that the inconsistencies in officiating need to be addressed before the finals series.
Graham Annesley defends consistency of NRL officials
But a defiant Annesley says officials are making the correct calls more often than not, and says the numbers back up his argument. According to the NRL, 18 of the 23 players who've received grade 2 or 3 charges for high contact were either sent to the sin bin or sent off, meaning around 78% of the time the Match Review Committee (MRC) agrees with the call from the officials.
“We would like this (number) to be higher, 80 per cent is not good enough,” Annesley said. “We need to be getting much closer to a perfect score here about having tackles that are considered to be the more serious types of tackles by the match review committee that result in a grade 2 or 3 charge, that they are sin binned or sent off.
“Eighty per cent does give you an indication that across the course of the season, the referees have been reasonably consistent with this. Because we have been reasonably consistent with this, it in some ways leads to the commentary we’ve had over the weekend where we’ve almost conditioned everyone to recognise what results in a sin bin or a send off, so when it doesn’t happen, everyone is up in arms.
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“That can only happen if they’re getting most of them right, and they are, but it’s not good enough to get one wrong in any round of football because they should be getting them right.” League bosses Peter V’Landys and Andrew Abdo have promised major reviews of the NRL’s football department after the recent controversies though, with veteran league reporter Phil Rothfield suggesting the NRL will reduce the number of Bunker officials next season in an attempt to gain more consistency.
