One way NRL Bunker must improve in 2018 season

RUGBY league has a useless multimillion-dollar bunker that can’t run a line across a TV screen to determine if a player is offside or a pass has gone forward, writes PHIL ROTHFIELD.

Melbourne Storm clearly offside against Parramatta Eels.

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CRICKET has the ball tracker, Hot Spot and the Snickometer.

Tennis has Hawkeye.

Racing has for the past 80 years put a line down for photo finishes to determine a result.

Soccer has goal-line technology.

All to protect the integrity of their sports.

Was Manly onside? Yep.

Rugby league has a useless multimillion-dollar bunker that can’t even run a line across a TV screen to determine if a player is offside or a pass has gone forward.

Technology that is available for a few ­dollars on a mobile phone app.

And it could have changed the outcome of two finals over the weekend — first, when Melbourne Storm winger Josh Addo-Carr scored from a blatant forward pass and, again, on Saturday night when a try was incorrectly taken off Manly’s Dylan Walker.

Have a look at this picture (inset above) that was put on social media after the Manly Sea Eagles had their season snatched away from them. It clearly shows Walker’s feet were behind Blake Green when he drilled the football into Penrith’s in-goal area with the score at 10-all.

Yet the bunker overruled the on-field ­referee and called offside.

Where was the sufficient evidence required under bunker policy to overturn the original decision? What a disgrace. It cost the Sea Eagles the game. Season over. Ten months of blood, sweat and tears all gone.

Later in the game, Panthers centre Tyrone Peachey appeared to knock-on before crossing for the match-winning try in the dying moments.

Referee Gerard Sutton wasn’t 100 per cent sure. No one was. That’s why he sent the decision up to the bunker.

He was forced to guess. And because he guessed “try”, the bunker wouldn’t overturn it because of sufficient evidence, although this policy was ignored for the Walker try.

Melbourne Storm clearly offside against Parramatta Eels.

Shocking inconsistency.

If Sutton had guessed “no try” there wouldn’t have been sufficient evidence to overturn it. So it all came down to guesswork. Referees only refer to the bunker when they are not sure what has happened. And this is the major problem.

Why are we even asking them to make an on-field call when they are not sure what’s happened. Why can’t they just refer it straight upstairs without influencing the video officials? Let them make a decision off the TV screen.

If it takes an extra 20 seconds, so be it. At least it will save teams from bombing out of the finals because of mistakes.

There were other incidents in Melbourne. Like Storm fullback Billy Slater getting a questionable obstruction penalty from a kick chase, while Brad Takairangi didn’t for a similar foul. Or the Storm being miles offside as Parramatta were attacking late in the match. Just ignored by Ben Cummins.

The hand of Peach! Tyrone Peachey scored an unlikely try to seal the Panthers win.

And then it was Cronulla’s turn. Hammered 11-5 in the penalties and beaten by a penalty goal from a highly questionable strip that took the game into extra-time.

Fans are filthy on the game right now. This is big-time finals football, not the club rounds.

And the trouble is the NRL has no idea how to fix it. Refs boss Tony Archer can’t because he has created the mess and is totally oblivious to it.

His outstanding young referee Grant ­Atkins can’t even get a game.

It’s not even on Todd Greenberg’s radar, otherwise he would have acted by now.

And the poor old head of football Brian Canavan … he’s one of the nicest blokes you’ll ever meet but has been proven to be ­incapable of handling major issues.

And then they wonder why the weekend crowds were so poor.

Trust me, the refereeing debacle is driving fans away from the footy.