‘They cheat better’: Phil Gould clashes with Paul Gallen over NRL ‘bias’ claims
North Queensland coach Todd Payten’s comments over referees’ preferential treatment to the best players and teams have sparked some fierce debate.
NRL
Don't miss out on the headlines from NRL. Followed categories will be added to My News.
North Queensland Cowboys coach Todd Payten’s comments over the weekend have sparked plenty of debate in the aftermath of his side’s 28-4 loss to the Sydney Roosters.
The Cowboys had three players sin binned, meaning the side was down a man for 30 minutes of the match.
Stream every game of every round of the 2022 NRL Telstra Premiership Season Live & Ad-Break Free In Play on Kayo. New to Kayo? Try 14-Days Free Now >
One was an obvious professional foul but the second was for late contact from Griffin Neame on Sydney five-eighth Sam Walker, which consensus appears to be was a bad call, while there was debate over Chad Townsend’s sin bin for a high tackle where he appeared to glance off the back of Lindsay Collins.
After the crushing loss, the Cowboys coach followed in the footsteps of Titans mentor Justin Holbrook who said: “It is about us as a club being not one of the big clubs and not getting anything” when discussing a lopsided penalty count in the Gold Coast’s round one loss to the Parramatta Eels.
Payten said: “Teams that have been up the pointy end of the competition for a while now or have high-profile players get the benefit of the doubt too often. That’s frustrating and that’s my opinion over watching footy for a long time.”
It’s an opinion which resonated with Channel 9 commentator and Bulldogs general manager of football Phil Gould, who agreed with the Cowboys mentor.
“I know a coach, and I spoke about this last week, but I know a coach from one of the lower sides who actually rang (NRL head of football) Graham Annesley one day and just said we don’t get the rub of the green,” Gould told Channel 9’s 100% Footy.
“Graham Annesley in his own words said that there is an intrinsic bias towards the better teams. There is an intrinsic, nitpicking of the lower teams.
“If you think about penalty blitzes we’ve had over the years, we can go for the first 10 weeks of the competition and have 25-30 penalties a game and they’re blitzing on everything. We get to the Origin and they have five or six penalties and it’s a 10 times better game.
“Their excuse is, ‘Well they’re better players, they don’t cheat’. Well of course they cheat, but that’s their excuse to stop the penalty blitz.
“What I’m saying is there is an intrinsic thing that the battling team or the lower team is doing something illegal to bring the top team back to the field. And he (Annesley) admitted it.”
But Cronulla Sharks legend Paul Gallen disagreed Payten and Gould, saying the better teams and player just execute their plays better.
“I think the better teams do things better than the lower ranked teams,” he said.
“They’ve got better players, they do things better.”
Gould interjected: “They cheat better”.
“Maybe they do (cheat better), but they’re better players. They do things better than the other teams,” Gallen said.
“You’re at the Dogs, so I can see you’re probably frustrated, particularly after the weekend.”
Gould replied: “I’m not frustrated at all.”
“But Gus they’ve got better players, they do things better,” Gallen continued. “They run the right hole every time.
“You don’t see the Penrith Panthers, you don’t see the Melbourne Storm getting pulled up for shepherds like you would see with other teams, because they run the right hole, they do it properly.
“They practice it time and time after training, when they get on the field, they execute it properly. Other teams don’t do that and that’s the problem, that’s why they get penalised.”
Michael Chammas asked whether it was a tactic from coaches to get more favourable decisions in the next few weeks.
Gould said it may but that it comes out of frustration.
“But, there’s Graham Annesley admitting to the coach … he used the word bias, it’s not bias but there’s a natural tendency to think the lower team are trying to get away with something,” he said.
Gallen did concede however that the number of penalties and sin bins in the game today are “insane” and “I don’t know what the referees are trying to do — let the players decide who wins the game”.
The comments have been hotly debated out of round four of the NRL.
On Saturday night, Fox League’s Michael Ennis, Braith Anasta and Cooper Cronk appeared to disagree with the sentiment, although Ennis said referees need to “stop sin binning guys”.
But on Monday night, NRL 360’s Paul Kent and Phil Rothfield agreed it was an “unconscious bias”.
Originally published as ‘They cheat better’: Phil Gould clashes with Paul Gallen over NRL ‘bias’ claims
The dark horse contender for NRL’s buy of the year
The player market frenzy has set-up a hotly contested field for ‘buy of the year’ honours, and former NRL star Mitchell Pearce is tipping a surprise contender to win the crown. See who is in the running and have your say.
‘I dug my heels in’: The Bronco who refused to walk away
On the outer with former coach Kevin Walters, Cory Paix was told he was free to leave the Broncos, but the nuggety rake refused to walk, and now under a new coach his 526-day NRL exile looks set to end.