NRL boss Andrew Abdo defends new powers that allow players to be charged for incidents MRC misses

After an outcry over new powers to regulate player behaviour, the NRL boss has moved to calm things down.

NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo has hosed down concerns from Panthers coach Ivan Cleary and the Rugby League Players Association over changes to the judiciary system that give the Australian Rugby League Commission new powers to charge players for on-field offences.

The RLPA revealed last week it had “serious concerns” with the decision to amend the judiciary code that gives the ARLC “absolute discretion and extraordinary powers” to charge players.

Cleary doubled down on Tuesday and said the lack of faith in the match review committee was “disturbing”, but Abdo is imploring people to not read too much into it.

“It’s not a matter of intervention, this is an insurance policy that the commission has identified to make sure that the policy as set by the commission is being applied,” he said.

“All it really means is that the commission is able to, on very rare circumstances, if ever, apply to the judiciary to review a matter that may have been missed by the match review committee or may have, in their view, not been graded appropriately.

NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo has defended the commissions’s new powers. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

“There could be an upwards movement of the grading, it could be a downwards movement of the grading. This would be in very rare, exceptional circumstances as an insurance policy.

“It’s not a case of us being in a situation where we’re going to see this applied regularly, if at all, but it is there as an important insurance policy.

“The commission has no powers to make a final decision, those powers will sit with the judiciary.”

Abdo was also forced to address Cleary’s comments about the MRC following its decision to suspend Scott Sorensen for a tackle that injured Dallin Watene-Zelezniak.

The Panthers coach was furious with the call and said the rule needed to be looked at.

“The actual hip-drop rule, I don’t even know who wrote it or when it was written. It’s very vague and nothing like why it was brought in,” he said.

The RLPA’s position on the recent changes to the Judiciary Code.

Read the full statement here: https://t.co/xjQBhijdJ6pic.twitter.com/08GDnGHvXA

— RLPA | Rugby League Players Association (@RLPlayers) June 20, 2025

“Scott made a tackle that is in most people’s eyes was a classic rugby league tackle. No one saw it, even the player who was tackled didn’t think anything of it.

“Not any player on the field, not the referee, the touch judges and not 18,000 fans (thought it was bad) but someone got hurt, so we had to do a cold case and go back and try to find it.”

Abdo said he hadn’t heard those comments but refused to back down on the game’s stance to protect players wherever possible.

“All I’ll say is that for a number of years now we’ve spoken about the importance of players having a duty of care and avoiding what is a pretty dangerous tackle,” he said.

“We’ll make no apology for wanting to protect players and we’ll also put the onus on the defender to take all measures to avoid those indicators (of a hip-drop tackle).”

Originally published as NRL boss Andrew Abdo defends new powers that allow players to be charged for incidents MRC misses