NRL doesn’t have enough referees to sack the poor ones

The NRL’s head of football, Graham Annesley, says the standard of refereeing over the past fortnight is unacceptable but there isn’t the depth in the ranks to sack under-performing officials.

Graham Annesley knows the standards have to come up. Image: Toby Zerna

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A fed-up Graham Annesley has admitted the quality of refereeing in the NRL is not up to standard but there isn’t enough experience in the ranks to replace underperforming officials.

In his most scathing round review of the season, Annesley revealed he is so worried about the errors made over the last two weeks that he arranged a meeting with referees boss Bernard Sutton specifically to deal with the mistakes.

Despite his frustration, Annesley, the NRL’s head of football, won’t be addressing his concerns with State of Origin referees Ashley Klein and Gerard Sutton ahead of Wednesday night’s decider in Sydney.

Graham Annesley knows the standards have to come up. Image: Toby Zerna

Annesley labelled the following incidents from round 16 as ‘not being good enough’:

• Referees incorrectly ruled Sydney Roosters utility Victor Radley had not charged down the kick of Wests Tigers hooker Robbie Farah;
• A touch judge incorrectly ruled play on after the foot of Roosters centre Joseph Manu goes in touch. The Roosters scored a try in the same set;
• Referees incorrectly ruled New Zealand’s Adam Blair stripped Newcastle’s Mason Lino of the ball. The Knights scored in the same set. The correct decision should have been a knock on against Lino;
• Video referees incorrectly overruled the on-field ‘try’ decision of Warriors winger Ken Maumalo. The denied try should have been awarded; and
• Referees incorrectly allowed play to continue after Warriors centre Peta Hiku suffered a head injury. They also gave an incorrect on-field explanation about why play was not stopped. The Knights scored in the same set.

Refs boss Bernard Sutton can only work with what he has. Image: Matt King/Getty Images

Annesley said Sutton’s refereeing ranks lacked depth which made it difficult to demote officials.

“In some cases you’ve got referees who are very experienced, who have been in good form throughout the season and they make an error, although it may be serious, we would actually be worse off if we dropped them because we don’t have better referees to replace them,” he said.

“We’d be weakening our officiating in the NRL if we were to do that in some cases and then we’d create more problems.”

Joseph Manu got away with one for the Roosters. Image: AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts

Annesley said that while he does not meet with Sutton on a regular basis, last weekend’s officiating had raised questions about the effectiveness of coaching practices.

“I need to know from the coaching staff what they are doing about trying to ensure these types of errors are not repeated and if it means their coaching methodologies or practices have to change, I want to know what they are,” Annesley said.

“Mistakes are going to happen but some of these should have occurred in the way they did.”

Given the recent discussion about CTE and concussion, Annesley was particularly concerned with the way Gavin Badger and Adam Gee handled Hiku’s head knock.

Not only was played allowed to continue, the on-field explanation as to why play wasn’t stopped given was incorrect.

Hiku’s head knock shows how referees must be careful. Image: Tony Feder/Getty Images)

“In the current environment, it’s a very serious error,” he said.

“We know from the audio they identified this, they just didn’t take the right action at the right time.

“He [the referee] said ‘watch him’. In other words ‘keep an eye on him’. That’s not good enough. That’s saying ‘I have identified there is an issue there but let’s just keep an eye on him’. But ‘keep an eye on him’ is not the right answer.

“Stop the game and have him assessed is the right answer.

“The referees incorrectly gave an explanation after the try had been scored saying ‘the trainer has to bring it to our attention’.

“That only has to happen if the referees and the touch judges are unaware that a player has suffered a serious injury.”

Annesley was also critical of the video referee decision to overrule Maumalo’s on-field ‘try’ referral. Not only did he concede it was the wrong call, he identified the error as a ‘training issue’. According to Annesley there was no need for the bunker to look at any other angle than the front on shot which showed, clearly, Maumalo had scored.

“They put doubt in their mind by going to the second angle,” Annesley said.

“They should have made the decision from the first angle they looked at. Pressure does this from time to time. It was wrong.

“The other angle cast doubt about in their mind about their initial thoughts and they didn’t need to do that. That’s a training issue that the management of the bunker have to deal with. I’ve spoken to bunker management this morning about this and they acknowledged they need to be better at this.”

Originally published as NRL doesn’t have enough referees to sack the poor ones