NRL referees boss Bernard Sutton has admitted his whistleblowers got it wrong when they awarded rookie Sydney Roosters half Sean O’Sullivan one of the most controversial tries in several years.
The bunker was slammed for giving the green light to the four-pointer in the first half of the Roosters’ 20-12 win over the Gold Coast at Cbus Super Stadium on Sunday.
The decision was described as a howler and Titans coach Garth Brennan was angered after the video referees had several looks at the incident yet still awarded a try.
O’Sullivan, standing in for Cooper Cronk, had the ball stripped from his grasp by Titans prop Jarrod Wallace before the 19-year-old appeared to rake it forward off the goalpost padding then bobble the ball a second time.
Sutton admitted senior review official Steve Chiddy was wrong to award the try.
“Once it touched the ground it constituted a knock on and should have been ruled that way,” Sutton said.
Sutton however defended several other contentious calls over the weekend including two dubious forward pass decisions and the penalty which led to Melbourne skipper Cameron Smith potting a game-winning two-points against Manly.
The Sea Eagles were penalised after the ball bounced forward off Trent Hodkinson’s head and Joel Thompson regathered in the closing stages of the Storm’s gripping 14-13 victory at Lottoland.
Thompson was penalised however Manly coach Trent Barrett questioned why it wasn’t ruled accidental offside, which would have resulted in a scrum rather than Smith booting the deciding penalty conversion with eight minutes remaining.
Sutton said the stance taken by his men was correct after Thompson played at the ball from an offside position.
“It was a correct decision to award a penalty to the Storm,” Sutton said.
Sutton also defended controversial try rulings which led to Roosters forward Poasa Faamausili and Melbourne winger Suliasi Vunivalu being awarded four-pointers.
Faamausili barged over off what appeared to be a forward pass from Kurt Baptiste in the second half against the Titans.
Vunivalu crossed after a flick pass from Curtis Scott which was widely considered to have travelled forward out of the hands.
Sutton said the passes leading up to both tries were judgement calls made in real time and the officials were in good positions to rule.
Forty Twenty
Guest
Curtis Scott and Baptise throw forward passes for two crucial tries and the bunker is forced to pretend that the camera angle means that they can't rule on it. What happens if these passes hit the ground or are deemed as 'lost control'? The bunker gets to put on another hat and sprinkle some fairy dust in the sky and pretend that the camera angle doesn't matter because it's deemed that the player has lost control. Magically the bunker can now determine weather the ball left the hands in a forward direction. Interesting conversation in the bunker on GF day . ' On ground ruling by ref is for a try , just checking for possible knock on.. Scott has lost the ball forward to winger, no try. We'll have another look to make sure, yes ball clearly travels forward but Scott didn't lose control he passed ball , sorry that's a try ' Storm go back to back and the Warriors go back home.
BA Sports
Roar Guru
Says the man who's solution was to look down the back of his couch for answers...
Wayne Turner
Guest
Nice non-arguments. Just like BA Sports and his "strawman argument" and assumptions.
mushi
Roar Guru
Not just the referees but the touch judges (after his Insead endorsed technique of asking them to "wake up") and some of the bunker guys. Apparently his couch houses 50 people, the census must have taken poor Wayne four weeks.
BA Sports
Roar Guru
So you can't actually name a single referee? I have bad news for you - if you think every single referee is performing poorly, then it doesn't matter who you replace them with, you will think they are no good as well - i.e You can't be pleased.
mushi
Roar Guru
I looked and didn't see anything worthwhile. If it's the refrees or you I'm taking the referees in a heart beat
mushi
Roar Guru
As for your suggestion you sound like the manager out of Office Space.
Wayne Turner
Guest
All ref officials on notice,under new management in 2019.Bad errors and they are out ie: missing forward passes,dud bunker calls. New officials can be found down the back of my lounge near my keys,they couldn't be worse.Lower grades,junior comps.One's that have no connect to the failure current management,and certainly not anymore ex-NRL players who tend to be terrible ie: Luke Patten.
Ian
Guest
So where do all these perfect replacement referees come from?
Big daddy
Guest
They should bring back the old "TNT" sponsorship. -- that's no try. They should be more selective with their sponsorship. Didn't they have OPSM for a few years - very apt.
SteveSyd
Guest
Ref blunder or bias? You decide.
BA Sports
Roar Guru
So you are getting rid of all 16 regular NRL referees? Or just some? Which ones out of curiosity?
Wayne Turner
Guest
Refer to my reply above,to your previous comment on this.
Wayne Turner
Guest
A whole clean out of those running it,and getting rid of bad refs - Once/if they fail under new refs management. Also,back to 1 ref on field,not enough good refs for 2 on the field,among other issues.1 in the bunker,and tell touch judges to wake up,especially on forward passes. People were and are more accepting of ref errors,when there are less officials in a game.Unlike the unacceptable nature of more officials and still huge blunders. Among other ideas...
Mushi
Guest
Okay so we fire the refs. What happens next week?
Mushi
Guest
So what is the solution?
BA Sports
Roar Guru
He can't acknowledge that a pass was forward based on his video review. If he did, we would then derive from that that video could be used to rule on forward passes during matcehs and we already know it can not.
Wayne Turner
Guest
Sutton protecting his mates.He's too close to the refs and needs to be replaced by someone independent.They were certainly forward passes.He can only admit to 1 ref error per round.He's a joke.
Wayne Turner
Guest
In Ashley Klein's case,from earlier in the season when he robbed the Wests Tigers vs Brisbane,it was a pathetic 1 week drop to NSW Cup,then promoted back to first grade and a further promotion to being a ref in origin.Forget the refs that didn't make major blunders in first grade,they promoted a known failure in Klein to ref origin. The whole thing is a sham.
Wayne Turner
Guest
The refs boss ego pride and protecting refs stops him admitting all the refs mistakes ie: Those tries given were certainly from forward passes.Add to that Wests Tigers were denied a try by a brilliant pass from Benji,that was called forward,that wasn't.Lucky for the refs Wests Tigers still won. Yet again showing the inbred matie nature of the NRL,and that the refs ranks from management,to the refs need to go.They are hopeless. Finally,having so many officials makes it even worse.Go back to one ref on the field.The game flows better,two refs butting heads won't occur,refs mistakes are forgiven more with less officials,and there is not enough good refs to justify having two on the field.Plus,have only 1 in the bunker,and allow touch judges to wake up. NRL = No Real Leadership.