- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
When I was still a kid, yet old enough to stay up later than 8:30pm, I would sometimes flick through the free-to-air channels and stumble across a magic show called Penn and Teller.
My memory tells me it was terrific. The two American illusionists would entertain their live audience with the usual card tricks, levitation, straightjacket escapes, and everything else you would associate with a magic show.
However, what made this duo stand out from other entertainers of the same brand is that from time to time they would expose the way their illusions were performed. The audience was for a short time invited into their mysterious world, where the skill and deception used was revealed.
The intimacy with the audience and candid nature of the show puts Penn and Teller in the league of the best of illusionist entertainers. I place them with famous names like Houdini, Copperfield and Thurston.
These creators are spellbinding and ‘magical’, most of the time leaving the audience befuddled with how they had been tricked.
Little did I know that – despite all the episodes of Penn and Teller – the greatest of all great magicians had not yet been revealed. To see him in person you did not need to be at a casino in Las Vegas, nor the Sydney Opera House, nor your local RSL Club, but at ANZ Stadium on Monday afternoon.
Of course, the man of whom I speak is none other than Canterbury forward Tony Williams. His sleight of hand created a try that has never before been seen: a pass for self-ricochet knock-on negated by regather after clearing a defender’s head.
Remarkable. In fact, it was so remarkable that the NRL Bunker couldn’t find anything wrong with it according to the laws of the game.
I wasn’t surprised by the decision and neither should anyone else. I was more disappointed that something like this was inevitable. I’ve written before about the black and white nature of the video referee, which is why we found ourselves in a position where a try that should never have been awarded got the green light.
There is no room for discretion for the officials in the Bunker. The NRL has completely ironed out any possible opportunity for common sense to prevail.
Let me firstly explain how the officials came up with their ‘try’ decision after the Williams deception.
Only one section of the law book covers what we saw on Monday and that is Section 10: Knock-on and Forward Pass.
The section is separated into ‘deliberate’ and ‘accidental’ infringements, whereby a player is penalised if the knock-on or forward pass is deliberate, or else it is deemed accidental.
Further, if the knock-on is deemed accidental, the same player can play on if the ball is kicked or regained “before it touches the ground, a goal post, cross bar or an opponent.”
What the Bunker officials saw was the ball touching nobody but Williams after it left his hands, not deliberately passed or knocked forward, and not touching anything mentioned above that – by the letter of the law – constitutes a knock-on.
Well done Bunker: process followed, job well done.
Or was it?
Rugby league, as with any sport, is deeply rooted in equity, or ‘fairness’. What we saw on Monday was the Bulldogs extend their four-point lead to ten points via a play that may not be illegal according to the laws of the game, but was certainly outside the limits of fair play.
The Bunker officials would not have wanted the try to stand. Touch Judge Ricky McFarlane showed the viewers he was not happy with it by pulling up well short of the corner post as the Bulldogs crossed the goal-line.
Yet they were all hamstrung by the ‘process’; that no matter what it looks like, don’t use your judgment outside the letter of the law, even if the laws don’t cover what you’ve just seen. It’s being driven this way in the name of ‘consistency’, with common sense and fairness cast aside.
Had the Bunker officials been given any latitude with Section 10 they may have found the answer a little further down. There are only four points in that section: Deliberate, Accidental, Charge-down and Heading the ball. We’ve dealt with the first two, and the charge down is well known. The fourth line states: “It is illegal to head the ball in a forward direction.”
Similar to the way a legal precedent is created, the spirit of this line may have been used to deny the try. ‘Intention’ is implied, but it’s in the laws to prevent a team gaining a significant advantage from it. Similarly in the Williams case, the ultimate advantage was gained – four points.
Granted, in our desperation for fast decisions there was no time for the three officials to debate the nuances or lack thereof in Section 10 of the laws. However, everyone knew a try wasn’t the fair decision, except we had no mechanism to deny it.
So how did Williams manage to deceive the Bunker and ‘accidentally’ knock the ball over the Dragons to regain possession and set up a game-breaking try?
Not even Penn and Teller could shine a light on that!
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.