The NRL’s match officials announcement on Tuesday lunchtime is usually cause for little fanfare, but sparked debate this week with top ref Ashley Klein not included in the showpiece Anzac Round of fixtures.
The NRL insists that he is merely having his workload managed after seven games in seven weeks, including the trip to Las Vegas, with the implication that all refs will be treated as such across the year.
Klein controlled last Thursday night’s fixture between the Melbourne Storm and the Sydney Roosters, in which Trent Robinson was left fuming by a decision that was Elisa Katoa awarded a try with Nelson Asofa-Solomona, in the coach’s view, pushing from behind.
There was also a ‘disruptor’ call in Xavier Coates’ match-winning try that Robinson thought went against his side.
Klein has still been given two Bunker assignments – Thursday’s Anzac meeting of St George Illawarra and the Roosters and Friday night’s clash at Brookvale between Manly and Parramatta.
Chris Butler is also absent from this week’s round of fixtures. He was in charge of the Broncos v Raiders game last weekend, which passed without major incident from an officiating standpoint. He will be in the Bunker for the Dolphins v Knights on Sunday.
Kasey Badger, who has been given the Cowboys v Panthers game on Saturday night, was left off the list last weekend.
‘No regrets’ – Mam breaks silence on Leniu saga
Brisbane five-eighth Ezra Mam has no regrets about calling out Spencer Leniu’s racial slur in Las Vegas and says he is prepared to meet with the Sydney Roosters prop when the time is right.
Mam, a proud Torres Strait Islander, spoke for the first time on Tuesday since Leniu called him a monkey in the round-one clash. Mam made an official complaint about Leniu’s comments on the field. Leniu was subsequently suspended by the NRL judiciary for eight games.
Asked if he had any regrets about the way he handled himself, Mam said “no’”.
“I just stuck to what my beliefs are and how I was brought up as a strong cultural man,” he said.
“If there’s anything I’m proud of, it’s my culture, and that’s what I’m going to stick up for. It’s my identity and that’s the reason why I am here.”
Spencer Leniu in Las Vegas. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Mam rejected an earlier offer from Leniu to meet with him in Brisbane, but said he would be prepared to do so in future.
“I think when the time is right we will have a chat,” Mam said.
“I appreciate that he wanted to come up and reach out to me. I have moved on from that now and I will probably have a chat to him when I see him, or whenever it is.”
Mam received huge support from the Broncos club and his teammates after the incident, along with current Indigenous stars Latrell Mitchell and Cody Walker and past greats Lote Tuqiri and Steve Renouf.
“It was definitely a huge thing for other players to come out on behalf of me and reach out to me,” he said.
“It lifted me up and lifted my spirits up. It’s good to see all the Indigenous and non-Indigenous players reach out to me. I will just play good footy now, it was a long time ago.
Broncos players Ezra Mam and Selwyn Cobbo with a group of young Indigenous kids after a Broncos training session. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
“It was a bit tough, but in saying that I am looking forward to being in the present. I’m not going to talk about it anymore. I’ll get on with the season and start playing some good footy.”
The Broncos received a huge boost at training on Tuesday with star quartet Adam Reynolds (hamstring), Payne Haas (knee), Brendan Piakura (ankle) and Deine Mariner (back) all training strongly ahead of Saturday’s away clash with Wests Tigers.
“It’s a huge confidence boost for the whole squad,” Mam said.
“It’s always a bit of a responsibility for myself when (halfback) Reyno isn’t there. It’s a big confidence boost for myself to lead the boys around and try and put my best footy together when he isn’t there.
“It will be a good game for him to come back, and the other boys to come back as well.”
Wally making concussion plea
Wally Lewis says he’s losing the strengths that made him ‘The King’ as he continues to live with the brain injury he developed while playing rugby league.
The Queensland great used a National Press Club address to call for an $18 million government investment towards support services and education about chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
After a string of head knocks throughout his legendary playing career, Lewis revealed last year he’d been diagnosed with the condition and wants more awareness about what living with it is like.
“It’s a journey marked by the twin shadows of fear and embarrassment, a journey through the fog of dementia and the erosion of my memory,” he said on Tuesday.
“I once had the confidence in myself to succeed, lead a team to victory, captain my country, remember the strengths and weaknesses of opposition teams, organise myself each and every day and feel well and truly in control of my everyday life.
“Now, much of that confidence has been taken away from me by the effects of probable CTE dementia.”
The Concussion and CTE Coalition want money invested in community awareness and prevention programs, with Lewis believing tackling technique particularly at the elite level must continue to be drilled.
The former Australia and Maroons captain recalled one experience when he received a concussion and lost control of his body to the point he was urinating in his pants.
“From that moment forward we used to make sure every training session was about putting the head in the right spot … I used to have a challenge for perfection in making sure it didn’t play a part in every game I played,” Lewis said.
“Technique is probably the No.1 priority, there has to be a perfection of the skills.
“They’re not just practising a simple technique that can stop the opposing players from scoring, they’re doing it for the health and wellbeing of the players.”
Lewis was joined by Collingwood premiership player Nathan Murphy, who was medically retired earlier this season after a sequence of concussions.
His last football match was the 2023 grand final, where he was subbed off in the first half after another head knock.
Murphy said grassroots education – both on technique and the effects of concussion – is needed to create a safer playing space.
Wally Lewis. (Photo by Getty Images)
“I coach a school team and there’s kids there who are suffering concussion, but they get told to miss three weeks of football, it’s very hard for them to understand,” he said.
“If they’re educated on this stuff, and they know the consequences, that’s where the impacts can come.
“(Collingwood had a training) block called the fundamentals which is all about making our technique perfect (but) growing up in school football and local football we didn’t get taught that.”
Symptoms of CTE include memory loss, confusion, aggression and depression, with some patients going on to develop motor neuron disease or Parkinson’s disease.
It is the only preventable form of dementia, with estimates that several thousand people are affected by the condition.
Annesley admits Tigers copped raw deal
NRL head of football Graham Annesley has conceded Wests Tigers were dudded when Panthers half Brad Schneider was spared the sin bin despite a professional foul which denied Justin Olam a chance to score.
Schneider ankle-tapped the centre without the ball which stopped him from being able to back up a break from winger Junior Tupou
“I’ve been pretty quiet about the refereeing but I just feel like we’re not getting the rub of the green,” Tigers coach Benji Marshall said after the 22-6 loss. “That trip, I see it as a professional foul in the act of a try-scoring opportunity.
“Justin Olam was supporting to try and score a try and he gets tripped up. How that’s not a professional foul and a sin bin? I’ll ask for clarification as that hurt us.”
The Tigers were up 6-0 at the time of the incident in the 11th minute and if they had scored twice early it could have changed the whole momentum of the match.
Annesley at his weekly media briefing admitted the match officials got it wrong.
“It should have been a sin bin, in my view. We’ve discussed it this morning with the referee coaching staff and the referees that were in the room this morning, both tripping and also that kind of interference to a support player who is not in possession,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter whether they would’ve scored a try or not. You can’t interfere deliberately with a support player, effectively bring him to the ground and prevent him from having any opportunity to play part in what may happen next, whether it’s a try or not, and escape without going to the sin bin.”
Former Blues captain Paul Gallen described the call to not banish Schneider to the sin bin as “absolutely ridiculous” on 100% Footy.
“That’s a try gone begging, I think they score from that play. He actually dived to ankle-tap him. How isn’t someone sitting in the sin-bin for that? That was a disgraceful call, I don’t know how the Bunker missed it.
“The referee should have seen it, the touch judge should have seen it.”
with AAP
Good Grief
Roar Rookie
Yes. That’s what he’s doing… presenting the case and proposing or recommending action. The exact definition of advocacy. It’s not begging. Huh?
Dan
Roar Rookie
Good comeback blink, your really strained to come up with that one :laughing:
Blink
Roar Rookie
And good luck graduating from primary school Dan. Your brainis where you're at.
Dan
Roar Rookie
Hahaha, best in the business :laughing: sure you’re watching the same sport champ. Yeah nothing much happening up top except the refs are as inconsistent as they’ve ever been, they couldn’t make a decision to save themselves and the league managed to get rid of the only decent one they had in the badger. Yeah no one has actually thought about any of this have they. Go back to trying to push square pegs through round holes genius.
Blink
Roar Rookie
Klein is the best in the business. He also brings out all the low life weeds as we see in this thread. The losers gather. Criticising refs is all they know because nothing much is happenning up top.
Andrew01
Roar Rookie
yeah, when i read; Klein has still been given two Bunker assignments – Thursday’s Anzac meeting of St George Illawarra and the Roosters and Friday night’s clash at Brookvale between Manly and Parramatta. - Even as a degenerate gambler, with Klein in the bunker you are adding another unpredictable element to the outcomes that makes it to risky to look at any betting markets on those two games.
mushi
Roar Guru
The bunker calls feel like there's a random number generator they go to
mushi
Roar Guru
And at the same time slashed the budget for refereeing. If the NRL were a public company analysts would have raised eye brows. Instead you've got a PVL fan club with no skin in the game and all short term upside.
Dan
Roar Rookie
20 would be better. With his excellent decision making skills he would have a great future as a magistrate.
Tony
Roar Guru
10?
astro
Roar Rookie
A consequence of too many rule changes in too short a time frame. The NRL has introduced 20 rule changes in the past 5 years and Refs are clearly struggling to adjust to them, or understand the consequences of them.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
Klein needs a good long rest , maybe a couple of years.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
Yeah, I try to stay away from criticising refs and the judiciary but this year seems to have a greater degree of inconsistency than usual.
Nat
Roar Guru
I’m not sure Klein is any better in the bunker than on the field.
mushi
Roar Guru
There's lots of weird calls this year. Sometimes your tunnelling, sometimes you're not. Sometimes the third 6 again is cynical sometimes it's okay. Sometimes a swinging arm is off, sometimes a sin bin and sometimes report. Sometimes 5+ metres is loitering near the ruck to block sometimes 5+ metres is not. I can see why the big gambling firms all say nrl is the best Aussie sport
Tim Carter
Roar Pro
Why was Mam even asked if he had any regrets about how he handled Leinu's slur? He did nothing wrong, and silence results in the continuation of such slurs. Once again, the victim cops the scrutiny and is expected to modify their actions to accommodate the perpetrator.
BigGordon
Roar Rookie
Huh? This is an article about Lewis using the Australian Press Club as a platform to support a group of people asking for 18 million bucks for reasons directly related to CTE. They're not there to "advocate" anything, they're asking the gov't to provide funding.
The Barry
Roar Guru
As I said at the time, understandable that the ref would miss the ankle tap live, but inconceivable that the bunker wouldn’t make the sin bin call…
Good Grief
Roar Rookie
Advocacy is not “begging”.
BigGordon
Roar Rookie
Considering the extent of the CTE issue across multiple sports, I think $18 million is a very modest amount to be asking for. Hopefully Lewis and those who support this issue are given what they need, without having to beg for it.