Melbourne Storm detail called out after Newcastle dudded by 'crazy' technicality in NRL loss
The NRL world has been left dumfounded with the rules after the Knights' devastating loss.
NRL pundits have questioned why the Bunker isn't allowed to adjudicate on players being inside the 10 metres during a play-the-ball, yet it was allowed to call Melbourne Storm player Jack Howarth for being in front of Ryan Papenhuyzen during a kick from a 20m restart. Knights coach Adam O'Brien took aim at the current rules after his team's controversial loss to the Sharks on Sunday, with the Knights now long odds to make the finals after losing 19-18 in golden point.
O'Brien and Knights fans were left fuming when Kalyn Ponga's drop goal was deemed invalid by Gerard Sutton (despite missing), because of his teammates acting as 'blockers'. There was uproar within the NRL world with many feeling the Knights were hard done by when viewing the replay.
Ponga used his captain's challenge to see if the Sharks were offside - and to overturn the blocker ruling - but the penalty stood as the home side marched down field. The Knights were also told they could not challenge and offside ruling via the Bunker - which doesn't have the power to call players inside the 10 metres - even though Will Kennedy appeared well in front of the referee.
And now the NRL world has turned its attention to Kennedy's offside play. NRL head of football Graham Annesley admitted it is not within the Bunker's power to rule an offside play against the defending team. “(Will) Kennedy may have taken off early and may be a step in front of the referee, so I’ll concede he potentially has a one-step head start," Annesley said on Monday.
"The other players who were all singled out in some of the stuff that was around overnight, I think you can say with some confidence that it was nothing like the images that were circulated during the night. (But) the Bunker cannot rule on that. It’s in the sole domain of the referee and the touch judge.”
Adam O'Brien calls out Melbourne Storm incident
And O'Brien took aim at the NRL after it was deemed the video referee can't rule an offside against the defending team. The Knights coach pinpointed a moment in the Thursday night Panthers and Storm clash when Howarth was deemed to be in front of Papenhuyzen during a 20m restart.
This handed the Panthers a penalty right in front of the goals. However, the coach noted the Bunker could not rule if Kennedy was offside against his team, which would also have been a penalty in front of goals for the Knights. “Referees have a bloody tough job to do, it’s a fast game and they’ve got to see a lot,” O’Brien said.
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“The rules were used in the nth degree with blockers but they weren’t used in the nth degree in probably the oldest rule in the book - about being on-side. I don’t blame the referees or touch judges, as I said they’ve got a lot to look at.
"We’ve got to blame the system. I think there’s technology there that we can use and it was used on Thursday night to catch someone was off side at a tap. But we can’t use it — and Kalyn asked for it to be checked, the on-side — in a golden point situation so that’s a flawed system that probably needs looking at.”
James Graham calls out Melbourne offside ruling
On NRL 360, James Graham claimed the Bunker and referee were not aware of Howarth's offside against Penrith until they were made away from the Panthers players. “The referee in the Bunker didn’t know that this had happened,” he said on Tuesday night.
“It was actually the Panthers players that went to the referee and said ‘he’s off-side’ and the referee went away and said ‘hold on, check Howarth’ It was the Penrith players that alerted the referee to tell the person in the Bunker to check for this.”
And this has prompted arguments to why the Bunker can't rule for an offside during a play-the-ball, but can in other circumstances in the game. NRL reporter Paul Crawley agreed with O'Brien and claimed the rules need to be reviewed. “Every time a kick goes up, and if it’s in a try-scoring situation, nearly the first thing the Bunker says is ‘chase is cleared.’ They can tell if a player is off-side,” he said.
“Yet in the instance of Will Kennedy on the weekend, the Bunker’s not allowed to rule on that. It makes no sense at all why they can call off-side from a kick, but not off-side from a team running up. It’s crazy.”
