NRL CEO Andrew Abdo dismisses concerns over ARL Commission’s new powers to send players to judiciary after backlash

Andrew Abdo has come out in defence of the ARL Commission’s new powers to send players to the NRL judiciary following concern in clubland and backlash from the players union.

NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo has dismissed concerns around new powers handed to the ARL Commission to send players to the judiciary, echoing the comments of chair Peter V’landys by insisting they are an insurance policy that may never be used.

This masthead revealed last week that clubs had been informed that there had been a change to judiciary rules which allowed the ARL Commission to intervene when they felt an incident had been overlooked or underplayed by the match review committee.

It prompted concern in clubland and a backlash from the players union, who released a statement warning that the new policy was an “unprecedented overreach” that would undermine player confidence.

Asked about the new policy on Wednesday, Abdo insisted the change should be viewed as a protection mechanism.

“It’s not a matter of intervention,” Abdo said.

“This is an insurance policy that the commission has identified to make sure that the policy as set by the commission is being applied.

NRL CEO Andrew Abdo has dismissed concerns around new powers handed to the ARL Commission. Picture: Matt King/Getty Images

“All it really means is that the commission is able to, on very rare circumstances – if ever – apply to the judiciary to review a matter that may have been missed by the match review committee or may have, in their view, not been graded appropriately.

“There could be an upwards movement of the grading, it could be a downwards movement of the grading. This would be a very rare, exceptional circumstance as an insurance policy.

“It’s not a case of us being in a situation where we’re going to see this applied regularly, if at all, but it is there as an important insurance policy to ensure the policy has been appropriately applied.”

As well as lambasting the change to the judiciary rules, the Rugby League Players Association said they would consider their options with regard to the rule change.

Abdo reminded everyone that the final verdict would remain in the hands of the judiciary and the panel of experts, who were at arm’s length to head office.

“The commission has no powers to make a final decision, those powers will sit with the judiciary chaired by an independent, very experienced former Supreme Court judge and a number of players that represent that panel that have played, or refereed or coached at the highest level for many, many games,” Abdo said.

“They will be the ultimate decision makers in the outcome of a matter that is referred to the judiciary. At the moment, players and clubs can take the same appeal mechanism to the judiciary in terms of something that is charged by the match review committee.”

Originally published as NRL CEO Andrew Abdo dismisses concerns over ARL Commission’s new powers to send players to judiciary after backlash