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Opinion
The National Reactionary League is continuing its policy of rule changes on the run by flagging the likelihood of the bunker being able to call back blatant forward passes.
That’s not a bad thing – the bunker should definitely have the power to step in to stop clangers like Saturday night’s costly error which virtually ended any chance the Warriors had of beating the Broncos.
ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys has indicated in a NewsCorp report that the rule will be reviewed at season’s end with the bunker set to get the power next year to adjudicate on obvious forward passes.
It should have always been the case.
Instead of continually talking about the discrepancies that come up due to camera angles or investigating high-tech options like a microchip in the Steeden which will uncover forward passes, the commonsense option has been sitting there all along.
Let the referee and the touch judges call it as they see it, because they should be in the best position to make the call, and when they stuff up, as they did on Saturday night, take the bunker off mute.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
If it’s a line-ball decision, whether a pass is pulled up or let go, show faith in the on-field officials and back their call.
It shouldn’t take a glaring blunder in a showpiece finals game to occur for this change to be inked into the rulebook.
If league officials had watched a game or rugby in recent times, they would have realised that union’s television match official has been given the power to deny tries for forward passes for several years and it hasn’t resulted in blood in the streets.
Rugby league doesn’t necessarily have a major problem with forward passes but they can slip through the net.
The 50-50 calls from dummy-half to a ball runner are difficult to get right because the referee is back 10 metres with the defensive line and the touch judges are often obscured by other players on the field or are too far away to make a definitive ruling.
Bunker interference is an ongoing topic of debate for the NRL and head of football Graeme Annesley was again defending its use last week when he was deflecting criticism over Ashley Klein’s failure to ping Sam Walker for what should have been a game-deciding penalty for a high shot on Melbourne’s Harry Grant.
Those who scream about the bunker being involved too much are usually the same critics who arc up when the on-field officials miss a call and wonder why the video crew don’t step in.
The forward pass dilemma is just one of the many threads in the Gordian knot (no relation to Tallis) of problems that NRL officials are trying to sort out.
If the bunker is given the power to rule on blatant forward passes, it should not just be for try-scoring movements.
When a howler like Walsh’s pass to Selwyn Cobbo goes unnoticed, it should be picked up straight away by the bunker and the referee alerted immediately.
Otherwise, if the play breaks down metres from the line and the Broncos score on the next set, then nothing has changed.
Likewise if a team scores a try and a pass looks like it may have been slightly forward but the bunker cannot be sure, the four-pointer should stand.
Basically the same logic needs to apply as it currently does when a phalanx of bodies gets in the way when trying to determine if an attacker has scored a try or been held up.
If there’s no irrefutable proof to overturn the ref’s decision, then stick with it.
The controversy over the Jordan Riki try means Gerard Sutton’s chances of usurping Adam Gee for the Grand Final gig are over.
Even though Klein tumbled from his No.1 ref mantle last week and Sutton will fall by the wayside after this high-profile mistake, Gee is not quite the Stephen Bradbury of whistleblowers.
Adam Gee. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
He has been one of the most consistent performers all season and thoroughly deserves a maiden Grand Final in his 13th year slogging it out in this thankless profession.
Any talk of Klein coming back for the Grand Final is surely just that.
Let’s just hope there’s no tries from blatant forward passes next Sunday when the Broncos try to deny the Panthers a premiership three-peat at Accor Stadium.
Those kinds of errors linger in the memory – Manly fans are still fuming over a Shaun Kenny-Dowall try in the 2013 decider as well as another one in 1995 when Steve Price touched down for Canterbury to trigger their upset win.
And you only have to go back 12 months ago to the corresponding matches when the NRL admitted Parramatta centre Will Penisini’s try should not have been awarded in their preliminary final.
Unfortunately for the Cowboys, the admission was made three days later at Annesley’s weekly briefing not during what turned out to be a four-point loss.
Kudos to Andrew Webster for not blowing up about the Riki try which turned a 24-12 lead into an 18-point match-winning advantage in the 55th minute.
Ref-blaming has become the easiest excuse for some coaches to hide their own or their team’s shortcomings.