How is touching a referee worse than stomping a player?

“We have to be somewhere on the field, we can’t disappear. It’s as simple as that.”

So said referee Henry Perenara to stand-in Parramatta captain Beau Scott after Eels centre Brad Takairangi had been blocked from tackling Knights winger Cory Denniss.

The resultant line break was finished off by Nathan Ross scoring, and Scott was appealing for obstruction. However, Perenara was having none of it.

The officials do have to be somewhere, whether we like it or not.

Sometimes it is arguably to the attacking teams advantage. When the ball hits the referee it causes a scrum to the side that in their attacking half. Some of us suspected a few years ago that Josh Reynolds was trying to perfect kicking the ball at the referee to get a repeat set. Whether he meant to do it or not, he certainly pulled it off on at least one occasion.

The referees are an essential part of our game. While I’ve certainly lambasted the officials on occasions like this and like this and like this, I’ve also supported the whistleblowers.

Specifically, I supported Gerard Sutton for his stance against James Graham and David Klemmer on Bad Friday 2015.

The players cannot be allowed to intimidate the officials verbally and especially not physically. The rules are there to protect the whistleblowers and the flag wavers.

This year there has been a crack down on touching the referees, with multiple players getting suspended. However, a number of players have got off. And some offences have seemingly gone completely unnoticed.

This week Jack Wighton became the fifth player to be charged with contrary conduct for touching an official. Kieran Foran and James Roberts accepted bans, and Sam McKendry fought his charge and lost. David Klemmer fought his charge and won.

When McKendry approached referee Jarred Maxwell, he did so to question a decision. In doing so he came into contact – albeit innocuously – with Maxwell. His defence argued that McKendry was “talking with his hand” and that Maxwell walked into it. NRL prosecutor Peter McGrath countered that McKendry wasn’t the captain and therefore had no right to approach the referee, and if he hadn’t approached Maxwell the touch wouldn’t have happened.

Sean Garlick, Mal Cochrane and Don McKinnon agreed with McGrath and suspended McKendry. Fair enough. Sam isn’t the Panthers captain.

Wighton is not the Raiders captain either. When he remonstrated with demoted-referee-now-touchie Brett Suttor to report that Manly skipper Jamie Lyon had in fact taken Jarrod Croker’s foot into touch with what was clearly a second effort, he brushed Suttor. While the touch was innocuous, Wighton – like McKendry – shouldn’t have been there. Now he won’t take part in the Raiders biggest match of the season so far.

However, Klemmer got off when he approached referee Ben Cummins to talk to him and touched him in the process. As we’ve already discussed, as Klemmer isn’t the Bulldogs captain he shouldn’t have been there, so it doesn’t matter that it was an accident.

Klemmer’s defence counsel argued his case thusly: “(the contact was) momentary, light, innocuous and minimal.”

Referee Cummins said, “I didn’t notice him making contact with me at the time.”

Peter McGrath argued, “It matters not that it wasn’t intimidating; it matters not that it wasn’t aggressive; it matters not the referee didn’t see it that way. You cannot touch the referee.”

Yet at the end of Round 2 the panel of Don McKinnon, Paul Whatuira and Bob Lindner let Klemmer off.

Then, by the end of Round 7, Don Mckinnon was on the panel that suspended McKendry.

And the captaincy is no safeguard in regard to touching a referee. Kieran Foran was certainly the Parramatta captain in the Round 2 clash against the Bulldogs when he placed his hand on Matt Cecchin’s back while talking to him. Why was he charged?

There is no question in this case that Foran deliberately touched Cecchin. Was it threatening or intimidating? Certainly not. But it wasn’t an accident. With the early plea he was able to play the next match anyway.

Then we get to the fact that a whole lot of touching has happened that has gone without charge. In Round 1 Corey Norman was quite animated when he touched Cecchin. In Round 2 Trent Merrin clearly touched Cummins (who also didn’t notice Klemmer touching him that night). In Round 3 Mitchell Moses clearly touched referee Chris James and wasn’t charged.

All of these occurred before the crackdown that seems to have happened with the McKendry decision in Round 7.

What made it hard for the Panthers to swallow the McKendry decision was that just the week before, Johnathan Thurston had clearly and deliberately touched Ash Klein during the Cowboys game against the Panthers and had not been charged.

However, maybe Round 7 signalled a deliberate crackdown on touching referees.

But how then do we explain the clear footage of Melbourne Storm captain Cam Smith handling Matt Cecchin in the Round 9 clash against the Warriors? It is post-Round 7 and clearly not accidental. However, ‘The Referee Whisperer’ faced no scrutiny whatsoever.

So here is the question for the match review committee: did you a) not see it or b) not consider it worthy of a charge?

If it is the latter, can you understand why the Panthers, Eels, Raiders and Broncos fans think you are crap at your job?

If it is the former, can you explain just how you missed it? Further, why has there been no charge laid on Smith subsequently.

If you are serious about cracking down on touching officials, what better way to show it than suspending the Australian captain.

While we are on the subject of lack of consistency, please explain how Shannon Boyd was suspended for a shoulder charge on Jake Trbojevic, while Marika Koroibete was not charged for an arm-tucked-clear-as-day shoulder charge on Dallin Watene-Zelezniak?

My multiple examinations of the Boyd incident in the fifth minute of the match against the Sea Eagles saw no clear evidence that it even was a shoulder charge, yet Boyd will miss a week and Koroibete will play against the Roosters.

Are different people reviewing the games? Are some games not being reviewed at all?

However, these bizarre inconsistencies pale in comparison to the fact that Souths prop Nathan Brown did not even get charged although vision clearly shows him stomping on Agnatius Paasi’s crotch in what looked for all money like a deliberate and malicious attack on a prone player.

The lack of charge for Brown makes the focus on innocuous contact with officials look ridiculous.