Eels star Mitchell Moses breaks silence on forward pass controversy
The NRL’s head of football declared it was a forward pass, and now the man at the centre of the drama has weighed in.
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Mitchell Moses has broken his silence on the forward pass controversy that led to Parramatta’s opening try in the preliminary final win over North Queensland, declaring: “I don’t think it came out of my hands forward”.
That is despite NRL head of football Graham Annesley confirming on Monday that the pass was forward and the try should not have been awarded.
The still frames of the incident clearly show the ball travelled at least a metre forward from Moses to Isaiah Papali’i.
Annesley revealed it was one of four crucial refereeing mistakes that led directly to try or no try decisions in last weekend’s sudden death preliminary finals.
The Eels were also on the wrong side of a dodgy call when Moses was grabbed by Coen Hess at marker before falling to the ground as the Cowboys scored one of their tries.
But in respect to his pass, Moses’ perspective was that he felt it was okay.
“I didn’t actually think it was forward to be honest,” Moses told SEN radio on Tuesday.
“Because of the way I threw it I didn’t think it was forward, you know what I mean?
“I’d thrown it pretty much backwards. It may have drifted forward, I am not sure. But I don’t think it came out of my hands forward”.
“That is how I saw it.”
While Annesley clearly did not agree, the NRL head of football was certainly of the view the call was not a “howler” as many commentators and experts had suggested.
“I am standing here and saying it is a forward pass,” Annesley said on Monday.
“But it is not the howler that it has been made out to be.
“And my job is to try and put some balance and perspective into some of these things.
“It is my job to be honest.
“We think that it is forward based on the motion of the hands.
“But again I need to try and explain the rule and how the rule operates.
“As long as the forward pass rule has ever been in place people look at where it is passed and where it is caught but the reality is that has never been the rule.
“It is about how the ball comes out of the hands.”
Meanwhile, Penrith was also denied two tries by bad bunker calls in the preliminary final win over South Sydney.
The incidents involving the Panthers included the controversial obstruction call against Jarome Luai that Phil Gould labelled “farcical” in the lead up to the no try decision against Charlie Staines.
Annesley also revealed Stephen Crichton should have been awarded a try when he touched down but the bunker ruled there wasn’t sufficient downward force.
Four mistakes: NRL’s stunning admission ahead of GF
The NRL has conceded four crucial refereeing mistakes led directly to try or no try decisions in last weekend’s sudden death preliminary finals.
And while the wrong calls didn’t end up deciding either game, it is still a huge concern for everyone involved counting down to the biggest game of the year this Sunday night.
With Ashley Klein tipped to be appointed as the grand final referee on Tuesday, that announcement will now be clouded by controversy still simmering from last weekend.
It comes after NRL head of football Graham Annesley conceded on Monday that Penrith was denied two legitimate tries in the win over South Sydney, while both Parramatta and North Queensland finished on the wrong side of refereeing errors in the other grand final qualifier.
The incidents involving the Panthers included the controversial obstruction call against Jarome Luai that Phil Gould labelled “farcical” in the lead up to the no try decision against Charlie Staines.
While Annesley also revealed Stephen Crichton should have been awarded a try when he touched down but the bunker ruled there wasn’t sufficient downward force.
In the other game Annesley also finally agreed that the Eels’ first try should not have been awarded because of a Mitchell Moses forward pass.
And while the bunker cannot rule on forward passes, what was most concerning was that the touch judge was standing directly in line with Moses when he passed the ball.
He added there was still no plans to introduce forward pass technology next year.
“We are still discussing it with the companies,” Annesley added.
“There is a number of companies who have possible solutions but we are not near taking anything (to the Commission).”
The NRL bunker does not have the power to rule on forward passes, but it is still baffling how the pass wasn’t picked up by the onfield referee or the touch judge.
Scott Sattler took aim at the bunker saying it should make decisions on any run of play.
If we’re going to use and spend millions of dollars on technology, use it for everything, or don’t use it at all or just use it for try scoring opportunities,” Sattler said.
“We don’t need chips in balls and extra expenses, they’re going to spend another few hundred thousand or million dollars, we’ve got smart enough people in the game.
“If there’s a try scored, especially for one that everyone thinks is offside, we’ve got enough minds and smart enough people that can determine whether the ball came out of the hands, forward, flat or backwards.
“If they feel as though they don’t have enough people in the game that are smart enough to do that, we are searching in the wrong places.”
But Annesley was not of the view of some commentators that it was in the “howler” category.
“I am standing here and saying it is a forward pass,” Annesley said.
“But it is not the howler that it has been made out to be.
“And my job is to try and put some balance and perspective into some of these things.
“It is my job to be honest.
“We think that it is forward based on the motion of the hands.
“But again I need to try and explain the rule and how the rule operates.
“As long as the forward pass rule has ever been in place people look at where it is passed and where it is caught but the reality is that has never been the rule.
“It is about how the ball comes out of the hands.”
The Cowboys should have been denied their second try after Coen Hess interfered with Moses at the play the ball.
“There was certainly interference there,” Annesley added. “Based on what I saw during the game I think it probably should have been (a penalty awarded to Parramatta).”
Although Annesley explained the bunker could not overrule that decision either.
“The rules around the bunker intervention are very clear,” he said.
“The bunker can only intervene in any incident after the previous play the ball.
“So the incident has to take place in the play after the play the ball. In that case it was before the play the ball had occurred so the bunker had no power to intervene.”
The two mistakes is the Panthers game thankfully didn’t influence the result, but that does not take away from the fact it was two crucial calls the officials got wrong.
“There is no physical obstruction,” Annesley agreed.
“In fact, if anything, they (the Rabbitohs defenders) kind of springboard almost, or lever off (James) Fisher-Harris to change direction.
“So in my view this should not have been called an obstruction.”
Meanwhile, he said of the Crichton put down: “I think there is clear evidence that Crichton has got the ball down. Clearly that should have been awarded a try.
“We do these reviews on Monday to look at things clearly in the cool light of day. We don’t kneejerk on these straight after games. But I think these sort of things do take some time to look at properly.
“But where we think there has been an error made, for four years now that I have been doing this we have put our hands up and admitted that.
“The one thing I would say is that these are close calls.
“The things that we have looked at today are close calls.
“And in the incidents we have looked at I believe that the decisions should have gone the other way and obviously I would have been much happier if they had gone the other way.
“Thankfully they didn’t impact the outcome of the game.
“But they are close calls. They are judgment calls. And they are made in real time in the case of the referee. In the case of the bunker they do have a small window to review matters.”
Originally published as Eels star Mitchell Moses breaks silence on forward pass controversy
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