NRL under fire despite dropping four refs

29 July 2019 at 3:34 am

NRL referees boss Bernard Sutton has axed his brother Chris and three other officials after the game was left red-faced by a string of incorrect calls against the Warriors and Parramatta.

Head referee Chris Sutton, assistant referee Chris Butler and touch judges Clayton Sharpe and Adam Cassidy will be relegated to reserve grade matches for four mistakes made in Parramatta's contentious 24-22 win over the Warriors on Saturday.

NRL head of football Graham Annesley on Monday faced a 50-minute grilling from the media after a weekend of contentious calls which left several clubs angry and many fans and commentators scratching their heads.

While Annesley said that three crucial calls went against the Warriors and another against the Eels, he defended their decision to deny Gerard Beale what would have been a match-winning try because of a Roger Tuivasa-Sheck forward pass.

Annesley admitted that;

The Warriors were incorrectly penalised for a legal strip on Dylan Brown by Chanel Harris-Tavita because Adam Blair had peeled off, which resulted in the Eels scoring the next set of six.
Parramatta should have been penalised for a strip by Clint Gutherson on Beale with 13 minutes to go.
Maika Sivo's 47th minute try should not have been allowed by the video referees because of a Brown knock on, which came off a Blake Green deflection.
The referees missed a knock-on by Warriors back-rower Isaiah Papali'i midway through the first-half.

While Annesley admitted the decisions were bad enough to result in four officials being dropped, he stopped short of saying it had cost the Warriors - who sit two points outside the top eight - the match.

The NRL has defended the call to award a potentially match-winning pass forward, which cost the Warriors the match against the Eels. (Images: Fox Sports)

"Each of these incidents changes the course of the game. What would have happened if these decisions were ruled correctly, we'll never know the true outcome," Annesley said.

"They have serious cause for complaint about these incidents, yeah they certainly do. We wouldn't be responsible if we didn't respond to that."

NRL defends forward pass call

However he defended his whistleblowers over their decision to call back a Beale try for a Tuivasa-Sheck forward pass three minutes from time - a call which has been highly criticised over the past few days - saying it was line ball.

"I generally try to avoid talking about forward passes in these reviews simply because some of them are so close and difficult to call, that we could literally fill the entire briefing with debates about whether passes are forward or not," Annesley said.

"I don't think this one is any different.

Roger Tuivasa-Sheck of the Warriors attempts to offload the ball during the round 19 NRL match between the Parramatta Eels and the New Zealand Warriors at Bankwest Stadium on July 27, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

"I honestly can't tell you having looked at it over and over again if this was a forward pass or not. I know the Warriors and fans of the Warriors will believe the pass is OK."

Annesley also refused to criticise the match review committee after Manly's Jake Trbojevic escaped suspension for a lifting tackle on Jahrome Hughes.

The tackle has been compared to the one for which Nick Cotric was sidelined for three weeks.

Annesley said he understood why some incidents were graded differently but was not privy to the conversations which went into deciding Trbojevic's charge.

"It's an independent process and that's what it needs to be," Annesley said.

"We've got to have some degree of credibility around the process, it can't be at the whim of me, (CEO) Todd Greenberg or anybody else."