NRL head of football Graham Annesley has admitted the Bunker got it wrong by not penalising Gold Coast’s Chris Randall for a hip-drop tackle that will see Jai Arrow miss the rest of the State of Origin series.
The Rabbitohs confirmed that their experienced forward would miss 6-8 weeks following surgery on a syndesmosis injury as a result of Randall’s tackle on Saturday night.
Arrow was in considerable pain and play was stopped for a couple of minutes, but the Bunker saw nothing wrong with it even though Randall has since been hit with a grade two dangerous contact charge and has accepted a one game ban.
“We’ve looked at that and we’ve listened to the audio. The Bunker did see it but they felt there was only minor contact,” Annesley said.
“They’re not to know at that point that there’s a serious injury. That should have been picked up by the Bunker and it should have been relayed to the match officials.
“The level of action that should have been taken was clearly a penalty, but whether it should have been more than that or not would have depended on how the Bunker relayed the information back to the match officials.
“Action was required in this incident.”
While Annesley concedes the Bunker got that one wrong, he says they got it absolutely right by not penalising Euan Aitken for what some people thought was a hip-drop tackle.
Annesley pointed out that Aitken’s body landed on the ground and not directly on Dallin Watene-Zelezniak’s legs, which is one of the big things match officials look for.
There were plenty of talking points to come out of Round 14 as well as the men’s Origin opener, with Annesley backing the Bunker’s decision to support the live ruling of a no try when Tyson Frizell was held up, while he also had no issue with Api Koroisau’s try.
However, he wasn’t thrilled with a couple of calls over the weekend, starting in Campbelltown where the Raiders were awarded a try that should not have been given because of a push by Emre Guler on Luke Brooks.
Jamal Fogarty’s try proved telling given Canberra won the match by a point.
“Had this just been a collision where they bump into each other and someone falls as a result of the collision then it’s probably a different story, but in this case it’s the extension of the arms that turns this into what I consider an illegal action that should have been acted upon,” Annesley said at his weekly briefing.
“It was reviewed by the Bunker. The view that the Bunker arrived at was Brooks stopped competing for the ball.
“He definitely slows down as he turns before the collision, but there’s no rule in the book that says you have to keep running at a certain speed. You just can’t simply extend your arms and push him over without the ball.
“In my view, this was an error by the Bunker and the try shouldn’t have been awarded.”
Wests Tigers fans were furious with the decision but they can’t argue with the call to award the Raiders a late penalty goal for illegal contact on Fogarty as he attempted a field goal.
Annesley showed similar examples that have resulted in shots at goal, and said the onus was on defenders to not put kickers in vulnerable positions.
The Dragons can feel aggrieved after the NRL confirmed referee Chris Sutton made a mistake by ruling a knock on against Mathew Feagai when the ball went backwards by about five metres.
Sutton initially called play on but was overruled by a touch judge which directly led to a Panthers try in the following set.
“It’s clearly an incorrect decision,” Annesley said.
“The irony of this and the disappointing thing about this – not only for the NRL and the Dragons but for the referee himself because he made the right decision – was that he got it right and was talked out of it by someone else.
“Had he stuck with his initial reaction to this incident that he had already made then I wouldn’t be standing here talking about it. I know he will be gutted by that, as are the Dragons and the NRL because we don’t want to see these things happening.”