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.
Stewy76
Roar Rookie
Good find Barry. And congratulations on not trying to explain in your own words the theory of relative velocity.. I think you'll find most NRL punters arn't naturally high achievers in physics :laughing: Truth be known, most of us cant even spell NRL :laughing: :laughing:
NQR
Roar Rookie
Any support player level with a teammate when the ball leaves the passer hands has to be forward yet the officials let them go all the time. People start talking about speeding trains to validate it.
The Barry
Roar Guru
It’s a good point Last time the bunker ruled on forward passes, it wasn’t the ones they missed that was the problem, it was the legit passes - like the ones you’ve described - that got pulled up
The Barry
Roar Guru
Also - the phrase “relative to the ground” is actually used in the laws of the game in defining a forward pass…
The Barry
Roar Guru
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=box08lq9ylg This might explain it better than me…
The Barry
Roar Guru
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=box08lq9ylg
The Barry
Roar Guru
I’ve described it above. What don’t you understand? A ball lost before a line marking (on the ground) and regained after it is always a knock on. If relative to the ground doesn’t make sense to you, then maybe relative to the ground markings does? But that’s not the case with a forward pass. A pass can be thrown before a line on the ground and caught after it and be a completely legal pass So “A knock on is always judged on the direction it travels from the player’s hand or arm. As is a forward pass.” is not correct. A pass can travel forward and not be deemed a forward pass. A knock on can’t
Morz
Roar Rookie
One thing I still see top rated referees get incorrect is that a pass is allowed to float forward, no problem at all, as long as the hand movement is backwards in the initial pass. I see it a number of times a season, especially from dummy half, and tries not given out wide when the finall pass floats forwards - NOT a forward pass if the initial hand movement was backwards. So, it's not the 'pass' a proposed bunker rule change should be looking at, its the ball out the hands direction. Big difference, but likely to get lost in the noise.
Ben Pobjie
Expert
A knock on is always judged on the direction it travels from the player’s hand or arm. As is a forward pass. What “forward relative to the ground” means I continue to have no idea. The ball cannot travel forward relative to the ground, the ground is underneath it at all times.
Sylvester
Roar Rookie
The unconverted tries were less of as issue for their inability to close the gap, compared to the dreadful edge defence leaking tries all over the shop...
Sylvester
Roar Rookie
Somehow rugby union has been doing this for years with fairly limited controversy. I'm just not sure why every other aspect of play can be reviewed, except this - and we just let obviously errors stand, just cos.
The Barry
Roar Guru
That’s wrong Ben If you lose the ball a metre before the half way line and it bounces a metre after the half way line, it’s a knock on If you throw a pass a metre before the halfway line and it’s caught a metre after the halfway line, it’s not necessarily a forward pass A knock on is always based on the direction it travels relative to the ground. A forward pass is not
The Barry
Roar Guru
The rules defining a knock on and a forward pass are very different. A knock on only has to travel forward to be a knock on, while a pass can travel forward and still be correctly ruled to have not been thrown forward. Adjudicating forward passes is much more complex than adjudicating knock ons Even so, the bunker doesn’t get all knock on calls right, so there’s no way they can possibly get all forward pass calls right The video ref used to be able to rule on forward passes and it was a disaster
The Barry
Roar Guru
Couldn’t agree more I blow up deluxe during games when refs get it wrong but never carry on with this ‘refs cost us the game’ or ‘refs/NRL want XXXX to win’ nonsense It’s much better for your mental health I wrote this above. The bunker either has to adjudicate on all forward passes or none. You can’t tell the bunker to ignore small forward passes, but only pull up the howlers. It’s stoopid for anyone to suggest that can be done. How can a bunker ref say “yeah, I thought it was forward, but it wasn’t forward enough for me to make a call, so I let it go” Thing is, we’ve had the video ref ruling on forward passes before and it was an unmitigated disaster. Nothing has changed since then
The Barry
Roar Guru
Agreed You can’t have a rule telling the bunker to “if you see a forward pass, but it’s only a little one, ignore it. If it’s a clanger, call it” We could have Annesley on a Monday morning saying “well, the bunker thought it was a forward pass, but it was only a little one, so the rules say he was right to let it go” We either have the bunker calling forward passes or not calling them. Calling only howlers will be an absolute disaster
The Barry
Roar Guru
Yep. The bunker ruling on forward passes has been done before and it was a disaster. Everyone complained loud and long until the NRL got rid of it There’s no new technology that’s going to make it any better this time Missing Walsh’s forward pass was a bad mistake but that’s all it was. I haven’t seen a call tgat bad in the last 20 years or longer. So we need to completely change the rules back to something proven not to have worked because of a ‘once in 20 years or more’ referee error It’s daft
NQR
Roar Rookie
???? Forward pass V knock on. I lost the lollipop over Gutho throwing a ball before the 20m line and it bouncing a metre or 2 past the line then being kicked a head for a try to Moses? They used a ball bouncing and being kicked ahead a pass. Life’s a box of chocolates with the NRL bunker rules. They could have said Walsh lost possession of the ball forward in the act of being tackled???? I’ve seen them bin a defender for touching an attacking player 2metres in front of a team mate with the ball. Next week they penalise an attacker behind a teammate carrying the football for obstruction????
up in the north
Roar Rookie
An 18 point lead instead of a 12 point lead with 25 to go, and you're calling it a match deciding call, there were actually 2 forward passes in that play. If the Warriors had converted their tries the scores would have been closer, no mention of that I see. The nail in the Warriors coffin was the sin binning, that's when the walls came crashing down.
Stewy76
Roar Rookie
I vote Jimmy for NRL president!
criag
Roar Rookie
And what can be done about what is, IMO, an even bigger problem...passes that are called forward that are not (particularly by over-keen touchies)?