Todd Greenberg has refuted Ricky Stuart’s claims there are too many voices in the NRL referees’ ears and declared the league’s bunker won’t be going anywhere.
But the frustrated NRL chief executive has vowed to ensure the match officials at the centre of Friday night’s controversial clash between Cronulla and Canberra would pay for their errors.
The ongoing fallout from the match will continue into a fifth day on Tuesday when appointments from this weekend are confirmed,
Debate has surrounded the bunker throughout the conversation following a fortnight of controversies, after Stuart labelled it as a “waste of time”.
Referees coach Bernard Sutton has insisted Friday night’s matter was not a fault of the bunker – as they were not told to look for that factor.
And Greenberg, who brought the bunker in during his time as the game’s head of football, said technology had to stay.
“It’s certainly not time to blow up the bunker,” Greenberg told the Nine Network on Monday.
“Technology is here. Technology is now in every sport. The challenge we have is the human element running the technology.
Greenberg also defended the voices of match-day referees coaches in the ears of officials during games, another facet of the game attacked by Stuart after the match on Friday.
“The reality is the head referee owns that space,” he said.
“They use the coaching staff as they want to use them”:
All eyes will be on Tuesday’s appointments, and whether the game’s No.1 referee in Gerard Sutton survives the axe.
Sutton was the head referee in Friday’s match, and put his whistle to his mouth but did not blow it after MacFarlane raised his flag in the lead up to Sione Katoa try.
Bernard Sutton told AAP on Saturday his brother had not seen the MacFarlane’s flag raised in the lead up to the try, and only lifted his whistle after his touch judge yelled “knock on” before he changed his call to “play on”.
Pocket referee Gavin Reynolds was also the official who overruled his sideline officials to call a Canberra pass forward in the lead up to what would have been a try as they attempted to mount a comeback, which the referees boss has since admitted was the wrong call..
And Greenberg said officials for this weekend had to be picked for this weekend with those poor performances in mind.
“Frustrated sometimes, really frustrated,” Greenberg said of his emotions..
“We’ve got to be getting those decisions right. They impact games, they impact livelihoods and we’ve got to get better.
“You can take it as read that tomorrow’s appointments will reflect some of that disappointment.”
“There has to be accountability across all the board, including me. You can expect there will be accountability tomorrow.”
Wayne Turner
Guest
Nope with a "conflict of interest" of a brother reporting to a brother. Inbred decision.
Wayne Turner
Guest
Plus a brother non real punishment of another brother. The inbred and conflict of interest that should never have been in place. NRL = No Real Leadership.
Wayne Turner
Guest
NRL = No Real Leadership. The hopeless buck passers.
Wayne Turner
Guest
Should never have got to grounding.Should have stopped play the moment the touchie put his flag up.Then,if touchie admitted he made a mistake. Re-start game with a scrum feed to Sharks near where touchie put his flag up (In field of course.). Clearly no official knew how to react to the touchie putting his flag up (Going to the bunker wasn't the answer.Even then the bunker should have ruled no try cause touchies flag went up.Bunker missing that was either a lie and/or they are hopeless.Then reverted to the scrum as mentioned above).It was a disaster.
Soda
Guest
That is spot on. You can't sew a stitch with one hand while you tearing it apart with the other.
Wayne Turner
Guest
I give Greenberg the thumps down,and he must be sacked at the end of the season.He has handled this poorly among other issues. Sutton and Archer must be sacked too.
Emcie
Roar Guru
Maybe someone should do a piece on all the ideas that the media pushed on the league that were absolute failures and were subsequently panned by the same people.
Azza
Guest
Never seen an organisation pass the buck so much! Oh we saw nothing! Seems playing dumb and nepotism is rife in that setup, they say they are cracking down on wrestling, laying on players, slow play the balls? Not if it involves overseas teams, ie Warriors, once again a pathetic one sided display, Storm were allowed to do whatever they wanted, including old 2nd ref, C. Smith! , hard to take game seriously when he gets away with high shots and stripping ball, meanwhile opponents are pinned for anything! Oh, it’s just the Warriors! AND have just been proved correct with what NRL thinks of them with those incompetent officials being “relegated “ to the Warriors, Titans game! Am not even a Warriors supporter, but blind Freddy can see Warriors and Canberra are being dudded every week!
Emcie
Roar Guru
What did Sutton do wrong? If you believe it shouldn't have been a try then surely him sending it up as no try is a good thing?
Azza
Guest
Exactly! What a pathetic joke NRL officialdom has become! Oh, it’s just the lowly Warriors and Titans game, no one cares, he can do that game! On that it’s just sickening how the so called “elite” get looked after by referees, ie Cameron Smith and his bunch of flop on th ball- carrier cheats against Auckland, for 5secs plus and get away with it, gee thanks ref, you mean we can slow up the game to this extent and you’re too scared to penalise us , because Smith is captain? Great, let’s kill the game as a spectacle, and slow it to a farce, meanwhile, turn a blind eye to our indiscretions, including a blatant high shot and hand on ball by Cam ( the pet ) Smith.? Oh, it’s just the Warriors, we don’t afford them any favours, just play dumb if you are questioned about illegaties, pretend it’s same for both sides! And this is what sides like Warriors and Canberra have to cop? Amateur hour incompetent, biasness towards the perceived elite sides of the comp? Someone needs to fix it fast! Rugby League officiating is at a sad all- time low and it is turning people off!
Boz
Guest
Exactly. While Greenburg remains, the bunker ain’t goin anywhere.
Stu
Guest
As a result of Sutton's performance he has been relegated to the Titans v Warriors match. You suck NRL - is this what you think about the non Sydney clubs?
Cadfael
Roar Guru
The only changes to the refereeing ranks this week appear to be the Canberra touchie who raised his flag and the pocket ref who called a forward pass in the same game. Did we expect anything different.
Cadfael
Roar Guru
Spot on Dogs. They brought the Bunker in, they have supportrf it through thick and thin but won't accept that it is a dud. Doing so would mean they were wrong and we won't get any "mea culpa" from the NRL or Greenberg.
Mushi
Guest
Look I think Greenberg is the least effective sports CEO of any competition I've followed in my life time. But he's there because "we" wanted a league man, after wanting an innovator (and yet chose Smith, whose experience was managing a winddown), after wanting to get rid of Gallop. We are really good at shooting CEOs and terrible at actually getting them.
uglykiwi
Roar Pro
The only thing that should go is GOLDBERG.... oh sorry I mean GREENBERG. Just killing the game.
Dogs Boddy
Roar Rookie
"Here is this thing I have invested a lot of money into and personally backed as the saviour of Rugby League. It's not going anywhere no matter how incompetent or useless it is." No surprises there.