Former NRL referees boss Greg McCallum says current crop have lost respect of players

FORMER top whistleblower Greg McCallum says under-fire NRL ­referees have lost the respect of the leading players — and have only themselves to blame.

FORMER top whistleblower Greg McCallum says under-fire NRL ­referees have lost the respect of the leading players — and have only themselves to blame.

McCallum, who has also served as match review panel chief, believes the NRL has set a dangerous precedent by allowing Sam Thaiday to escape with just a $1550 fine for his grubby act of pulling at the injured thumb of Jesse Bromwich.

And as the fallout continued after Thursday night’s officiating train wreck in Melbourne’s 14-12 win over Brisbane, McCallum joined Bill Harrigan by declaring Will Chambers’ no-try ruling was wrong.

Harrigan was also adamant Thaiday should have been sin-binned for his third-man-in attack on unsuspecting Melbourne winger Suliasi Vunivalu that “could do untold damage”.

While NRL referees boss Tony Archer would not respond to requests for an interview to clear up the confusion for fans, he put out a statement on the NRL website.

Thaiday gets under the opposition’s skin with third man in play. Picture:Wayne Ludbey

Archer claimed there was evidence Chambers lost possession short of the line and that split screen technology allowed the review officials to pinpoint the moment.

Harrigan was calling the match live on Triple M and took off his headphones and walked out of the commentary box in protest.

“Dead set try. Every day of the week,” Harrigan told The Saturday Telegraph. “The rule is, you can ground the ball with your hand or arm. His hand and arm was always on the ball and it was all momentum.”

McCallum agreed. “I am trying to be non-critical of referees themselves but it is the process that is killing it,” he said. “The technology is unbelievable. But the fact the referee sends up a decision (being a try or no try) makes it 95 per cent impossible to overturn.”

Try or no try? It’s the hottest topic in rugby league right now. (Photo by Scott Barbour/Getty Images)

McCallum also believes Thaiday should have been suspended, not fined.

“It reminded me of Paul Gallen when he ripped off the bandage (from the head of former Gold Coast forward Anthony Laffranchi in 2008),” McCallum said.

“To me, that is a straight-out match ban. Those sorts of things are just a bad look. To go and pull at someone’s ­injury I just think is very poor. I probably would have charged it at a level that he would have done a game because what you are doing then is setting a precedent.”

In McCallum’s view, the lack of respect shown by Darius Boyd was just as bad when referee Gerard Sutton tried to talk to him after Korbin Sims was penalised for dropping a forearm.

Thaiday copped a fine for grabbing at Jesse Bromwich’s thumb that had a compound fracture in Round 1.

“That really got up my nose,” McCallum said. “The referee called (Darius) out and wanted to caution him. And as soon as he started telling him that, Darius Boyd just cut him off and said, ‘Well, what about such and such’, and started to point down the field.

“Everyone is crying out for the referees to be respected but you have to show some positive action yourself as a referee. You just have to shut him up.

“That is the same with Cameron Smith, all these blokes. They talk when they want to talk and don’t ­respect the referee. To be fair, that is what really pisses people off, seeing that sort of stuff. They want the referees to show some strength.”