Referees again under the microscope after controversial calls in Souths-Manly thriller

Dudded, be damned! While Des Hasler was adamant Manly wins if Jake Trbojevic isn’t sin-binned against Souths, NRL Head of Football Graham Annesley applauded the decision. Who is right?

Trbojevic’s dismissal was a massive call. AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts.

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Once Cody Walker would’ve been guilty of nothing but handbags at 10 paces.

Yet now?

Go for 10 minutes, son. Which is crazy.

But not, say, Jake Trbojevic being sin binned for a body check crazy.

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Jake Trbojevic gets a 10-minute spell for his misdemeanor.

That was even more controversial. And costly.

“Dudded,” was the word Manly coach Des Hasler used afterwards.

And who knows what else when said binning occurred?

It was that sort of night.

Only three days after Souths skipper Sam Burgess accused the NRL judiciary of being a Kangaroo Court -- and asked “what are we doing? Are we killing the game?” – officials have again sparked a social media meltdown after sin binning Walker, Trbojevic and Manly centre Brad Parker.

Talk about chaos.

So bad that for almost 70 minutes, nobody was sure exactly which mob of fans would feel most aggrieved.

Yet by fulltime, undoubtedly it was the Sea Eagles.

Hasler adamant afterwards that his side wins if Trbojevic, with 13 minutes to play, isn’t binned for knocking over Souths centre Dane Gagai during a chase upfield.

And maybe Dessie was right.

Walker also spent time in the sin bin. Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images.

Yet NRL Head of Football Graham Annesley was having none of the “dudded” call.

“It was a professional foul in a tryscoring situation,” Annesley said of the Trbojevic incident, with stills appearing to show the Sea Eagles star with both hands on Gagai as they ran.

“Last week I publicly criticised a referee for not using the sin bin in similar circumstances. If Jake doesn’t grab the support player, the consequences don’t occur.”

Commenting on Channel Nine, Andrew Johns disagreed.

“No, no way,” The Eighth Immortal screamed. “That’s not even a penalty … it’s a body check”.

Yet Bunnies coach Wayne Bennett was OK with it. Same deal Fox League experts Greg Alexander, Braith Anasta and Gorden Tallis.

The latter of whom dubbed the three binnings “really soft … but deserving”.

And Trbojevic himself?

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“That hurt a lot,” he said afterwards.

“Sitting in there watching your team-mates, it was hard.

“It probably cost us the game.

“They scored two tries while I was off. It hurts.”

Yet what didn’t hurt?

Probably that open hand slap Walker popped on Manly No.12 Jack Gosiewski.

The same Gosiewski, it should be noted, who moments earlier had tried to push the head of Rabbitohs fullback Adam Doueihi through the ANZ Stadium turf and into China.

Or somewhere like that

Trbojevic’s dismissal was a massive call. AAP Image/Dan Himbrechts.

And, yes, if you consult the 2019 NRL rulebook, the Bunnies No.6 goes.

But as for league fans liking it?

“You scratch your head sometimes,” Johns fumed of a decision that then saw Manly score one try with Walker off.

“What do they want the game to be? It’s political correctness on the field.”

At the time referee Gerard Sutton told Sam Burgess: “Cody, open hand to the face. That’s an automatic sin bin. It’s striking, Sam ...”

Which really, it isn’t.

Yet it is.

And still, somewhere in all this, Manly centre Brad Parker was then sin binned for tripping.

About the only call all night everyone agreed on.

Originally published as Referees again under the microscope after controversial calls in Souths-Manly thriller