‘No way’: NRL’s decision on painful Eels calls

Graham Annesley has backed a couple of controversial Bunker calls out of Saturday night’s game in Newcastle that will only add to the frustration of Parramatta fans who feel their side was denied two tries by the Bunker.

The Eels ultimately went down 34-26 to the Knights, with wingers Maika Sivo and Blaize Talagi denied tries that could have easily changed the outcome of the contest.

They were just some of the calls out of a controversial night in the Hunter, but Annesley has backed the officials, also declaring they were right to award the hosts a try despite Clint Gutherson being blocked by the referee as he tried to make a tackle.

The tightest call on the night came in the second half when Talagi thought he’d scored his third try, only for the referee to rule he’d grounded the ball short and then slid the ball forward, constituting a knock-on.

“This is quite different to the interpretation we spoke about at the start of the year where if a ball comes out of a hand as the player is trying to place it on the ground, if there is separation then they have to catch up with it before it hits the ground, and then if it does roll down the arm and they catch up with it, that can be ruled a try,” Annesley explained.

“But that’s not what happens here because the ball was firstly grounded short of the line, and regardless of what you think about the separation, it’s short of the line and then the ball rolls across the line with the arm.

“If you elevate that up off the ground then the ball comes out of his hand and there’s nothing to stop it from dropping away from the air.

“There’s no way this can be ruled a try. It was ruled no try live, and there was no evidence for the Bunker to overturn the original decision.”

Sivo had earlier had a try of his own disallowed by the referee who said the ball never came in contact with the try line as he fought through defenders and then got the ball to the grass.

The Bunker decided to support the live decision, and Annesley concedes it was so tight that the video review officials would have awarded a try if that’s what the on-field referee had said.

“These things are literally matters of millimetres, but close enough is not good enough,” Annesley said.

“This was ruled no try on the field so the Bunker has to be able to prove conclusively that this was a try.

“There is initially a hand that goes under the ball. There’s no doubt the ball does get to the ground, but it gets to the ground as it starts to get pushed back.

“The Bunker had no conclusive evidence with which to overrule the on-field decision, so again I can’t fault the process in that regard.

“Some people might claim that they see the ball touch the line, but I can’t conclusively say that so it’s one of those decisions where we ultimately have to go with the decision made by the referee on the field.”