Glaring issue ruining the NRL for fans that the league cannot keep ignoring

The NRL product is refined every year, with countless rule changes and tweaks, but it is time they stop ignoring the elephant in the room.

COMMENT

It is time for the NRL to address the elephant in the room, the forward pass.

In 2025, there has been no shortage of attention placed on NRL officials as a crackdown on high shots, shoulder charges, hip drops, blockers, and sin bins have all dominated headlines at various points of the season.

But it’s time we fix the largest scourge on the game, the forward pass.

There have been countless forward passes every week that result in tries being scored, many of which have been game-defining.

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Every offence in rugby league can be scrutinised by the NRL Bunker, with one exception, the forward pass.

Once a referee sends a try review upstairs to the Bunker, they skip past blatant forward passes as boos ring out around the stadium,

And that’s because they can’t rule on them. But why?

In 2013, the chief operating officer of the NRL, Graham Annesley, said it was too subjective to call them.

“It’s massively subjective in a two-dimensional picture that distorts if the camera is not directly in line with it. Also, the rule itself is all about how the ball leaves the passer’s hand rather than the path that it travels across the ground, so a ball can be forward but thrown correctly and float forward and still be a legal pass,” he said at the time.

You can watch the Broncos’ try off a forward pass in the player above.

The forward pass epidemic is a real problem. Image: Fox Sports/Getty

However, with the technological advancements, more angles than ever and a bit of common sense, surely it’s time for that to change.

Sure, there are times where the ball floats forward marginally and most fans would be happy for them to be let go.

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But ones that sail 5m forward and get the green light simply because the bunker can’t intervene have fans pulling their hair out.

That was the case again on Saturday night as Gehamat Shibasaki threw a ball several metres forward to Billy Walters.

But neither Ashley Klein nor the touch judge picked it up live, and with the bunker having no power to intervene, it was given the green light.

“Oh boy, look at Scott Drinkwater blowing up deluxe,” Fox League’s Michael Ennis said in commentary.

“I’m not sure that one passes the pub test. He passed it before the line, and it’s caught well over the line.”

Then on Sunday, Ronaldo Mulitalo also benefited from a questionable pass as the Sharks took control of their match against the Knights.

There was then another one in the Dolphins vs. Titans game, as Jaylen De Groot crossed for Gold Coast’s second try.

While only last week, a blatantly forward pass to Alex Johnson was let go.

The reality is officials make mistakes; they are just human after all.

But with the improvements in technology and more angles than we know what to do with, surely it is no longer ‘subjective’ whether a pass travels forward or not.

If it needs to be adjudicated on if the hands are facing back, it’s fine as a measure to determine the legitimacy of a pass, then so be it.

But it is time to use the Bunker for what it was brought in to do, overturn howlers.

The forward pass not being officiated properly is costing teams dearly and ruining the game for fans.

It’s time for the NRL to say enough is enough and fix the blight on our game once and for all.