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.”
The Barry
Roar Guru
Cheers kk… I really enjoyed your question about legalising forward passes… it got the brain juices flowing If the end goal is removing incorrect forward pass calls, it’s by definition the best rule change they could make Edward de Bono would be proud
kk
Roar Pro
TB, Your penultimate paragraph is pure Barry wisdom and most appreciated.
The Barry
Roar Guru
That’s certainly thinking outside the box… So as long as the receiver starts from behind the passer, it doesn’t matter if it travels forward at all It doesn’t immediately appeal to me, but it definitely solves a problem. I think it causes many more Part of the beauty of league (and union) compared to other target based team ball sports (EG soccer, AFL, NFL, polo, basketball, netball, hockey, handball, lacrosse, etc) is that you can’t just pass the ball downfield and go over the defensive line You have to work out a way to go through or around the defence. It’s pretty unique We lose that we lose a lot of the essence of the game I think we need to not over react. I can’t remember a pass as bad as that in 40 years, so 99.9999% of the time these things get picked up Do we really need to change the rules for the 0.0001% shocking decision? I work in WHS and risk, and there comes a point where mitigation is no longer practical… I think that’s where we’re at
Richard POWELL
Roar Rookie
Spot on TB. If Klein and Sutton are in the bunker, 90% of good passes will be pulled up. The Vegas crowd will walk out at this and the stupid no try rulings when the ref has no idea whether the ball is grounded. Maybe they'll bring in a rule that a touchdown (try) is scored if the player reaches the in goal.
kk
Roar Pro
Wotif, the forward pass was legalised, TB.
kk
Roar Pro
You could add several linesmen (all ?) to the reject pool. souvalis.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
What constitutes "lead-up" to the try? A side with good systems, like our grand finalists, maybe plays a whole set as a lead up to a try. And you can't just say the last PTB or only in the scoring half of the field, because the play might be: goal line kick receipt - forward pass to winger - sprint / kick downfield - tackle 2 m out - dummy half barges over. Might as well then review every pass. 2 hours later ...
The Barry
Roar Guru
* hasn’t been the forward passes they miss…
The Barry
Roar Guru
The Walsh pass was clearly outrageous. I thought the Cobbo pass was fine though
WA Sharks Fan
Roar Rookie
Walshes pass was putrid (went 3-4 m forward and CLEARLY forward from the hands). The next pass (Cobbo’s) was also forward from the hands and you had the 30m line as a good reference (released 1m before, caught 1m after BUT maybe, just maybe some MAY argue that it was backward from the hands - not my belief thou). What the touchie was doing for either I have No idea! In a try scoring play, there is NO reason why the bunker couldn’t have made a call. They can review and call a bees old fella knock on during a contested bomb but can’t rule a 3-4 m forward pass? Im not a big fun of the bunker, but they should be allowed to rule on a blatant forward pass like Walsh’s pass.
BigGordon
Roar Rookie
Annerseley should not have anything to do with changes to forward pass rules or reviews by the Bunker. This is the type of change where the person in charge needs to find all the scenarios where it will work, not all the scenarios where it won't. If Annersley has his way, only the occasional missed forward pass would be called because his refs would be too scared to call others, so they'd use that catch-all "insufficient evidence" That saves them being publicly carpeted by Mr Hindsight when he does his Monday briefing to the press.
The Barry
Roar Guru
Historically, the problem with the bunker adjudicating forward passes has been the forward passes they miss, it’s been the legit passes they pull up You can’t create rules and systems aimed only at ‘howlers’ or ‘clangers’. It just doesn’t work that way If all we’re relying on is a person looking at a TV and over ruling a referee, this will end badly…
Succhi
Roar Rookie
Question in Las Vegas Q:Hey Aussie Boy, what are those two guys with flags running up and down the side lines. What are they doing man? A: They are there to wear sponsorship and run in front of the TV camera as often as possible, whilst not watching the game at all.
souvalis
Roar Rookie
From our Top 4 referees in September: G. Atkins punt (Sharks 7 tackle score clanger) A. Klein punt (double clanger last week) G.Sutton punt (Walsh pass) A. Gee does a Steve Bradbury for the G.F. These blokes have been around for a decade. Where's the new blood ?
NQR
Roar Rookie
Annesley’s the biggest embarrassing Clanger that should be eliminated.