NRL 2020: Bunker still not ready to rule on forward passes after Cameron Smith howler

Cameron Smith has highlighted the need for the bunker to rule on forward passes after his ‘blatant’ effort against Souths. Now the NRL’s head of football Graham Annesley has revealed when we can expect the controversial changes.

The NRL is at least a year away from introducing technology to rule on so-called “blatant” forward passes.

It comes in the wake of another controversial call involving Cameron Smith in Melbourne’s crucial win over South Sydney that Brad Fittler initially labelled “a metre forward”.

But NRL head of football Graham Annesley explained the fact that further replays showed the pass was flat — and almost impossible to rule if it was forward — only highlighted why it would be so fraught with danger introducing any technology before it was at least close to howler-proof.

“I heard some discussion around the fact it was blatantly forward, metres forward, I don’t think (the additional replays) support the fact that it was as blatant that perhaps it was made out,” Annesley said.

“Ultimately I will let everyone make up their own minds.”

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The controversial Cameron Smith pass that helped Storm defeat the Bunnies.

But it means it could be some time before the bunker can rule on forward passes.

“I don’t have a time frame on it,” Annesley said.

“We are constantly looking at technology.

“We need to make sure that the right technology is available.

“There is a lot of developments happening very rapidly actually across the globe in other sports. There is a lot happening in football in the UK in particular.

“But it is not at the point where we need it to be yet.

“It is not something we will probably see in the next 12 months or more.

“It is just a matter of when technology that will do what we need it to do is developed.

“The moment there is technology that can do it with some degree of accuracy of course we’d be open to it but then it will come to cost.”

It is a debate that has divided many in the game for years as to why the match officials didn’t have access to the replays that every fan can see at home.

But in this instance Cameron Smith’s pass to big Tino Faasuamaleaui showed how easily a camera angle can create a false impression, so it is vital the right camera angles are available.

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“I have showed a few during the course of the year,” Annesley said.

“There was one in particular which showed if you look at two different camera angles, one from one side of the field and one from the other, you’d swear blind you were looking at two different passes.

“So that has always been the problem.

“And particularly straight off the ruck (as Smith’s pass was), you do see a lot of flat passes. Now flat passes are OK, as long as they are not forward.

“And so when you get a camera, in the case of that, the camera was on the 50m line and that happened only a couple of metres out from the goal line, it is almost impossible to say with any degree of certainty whether the ball has gone forward or backwards.

“It puts it in a different context.”