NRL head of football Graham Annesley has warned some forward passes would still be missed by video technology even if the bunker were able to rule on them in the lead-up to tries.
The ARL Commission will consider allowing the bunker to call back tries for forward passes in an end-of-season review, after referees missed one such offload from Brisbane’s Reece Walsh on Saturday.
Forward passes have not been reviewed by video referees since 2001, when controversy regularly engulfed the NRL and it was deemed too difficult to judge using replays.
The chief concern would remain around camera angles at different parts of the field.
While Walsh’s pass was easily identified as forward in Brisbane’s preliminary final win over the Warriors on Saturday as it happened on halfway, Selwyn Cobbo’s seconds later would likely be too hard to call by video as it happened further downfield.
The areas of difficulty would also likely include the attacking 20-metre zones, where side-on cameras are rarely in line with where a pass had been thrown.
“We’ll look at it as part of our review of the season. That’s absolutely the right thing to say,” Annesley said.
“If we can stop those sort of clangers (like Walsh’s) where they get missed, and it is quite obvious, then let’s have a look whether that’s feasible to do.
“But there are others where it’s probably not possible to do it. Because you can look at different camera angles and it gives you different perspectives.”
Annesley said it was possible the bunker might only intervene when it was abundantly clear the ball had left the hand going forward.
“There may well be a way of coming up with a process,” he said.
“For example when a try is sent to the bunker, and the bunker can’t determine whether the ball has hit the ground or not, then the on-field decision stands.
“So there may be some sort of system (like that). We haven’t discussed this internally.”
The NRL have ruled out any immediate use of skeletal-tracking or ball-chip technology after trials in the NRLW last year, given the challenge of having infrastructure at all grounds.
Annesley said the NRL had made significant technological advances since scrapping video reviews of forward passes in 2001, including the introduction of the bunker.
The review process has also changed, with all tries inspected by the bunker as opposed to in 2001, when referees sent tries upstairs for long stoppages.
“Back then we had a video referee sitting in what’s effectively a radio box at most of our venues where the monitor is a relatively small monitor,” Annesley said. “What we were also seeing was almost every try got sent to the bunker because the referee didn’t want to take a punt on whether the last pass was forward or not.
“We’ve now got a different process in place where the referee can award a try and it gets checked in the background.”
© AAP
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.
With several players knocked out this season, evidence is mounting to scrap or shorten kickoffs - but Graham questions whether the concern is all…
In particular, he is furious over the Bunker constantly taking tries away from players.
An NRL clause has come to light, stating that if a player is selected for a representative team and withdraws, the players agrees they…
South Sydney have given Lachlan Ilias permission to look elsewhere, as the NRL confirmed it had the power to block any attempt by Latrell…
If there was ever a testament required to the success of the New Zealand Warriors, we might have seen it this last weekend passed.…
If people can lose their job, and clubs can face massive payouts, due to the behaviour of coaches, it will drastically change the way sporting teams in Australia will be run.
