Legend blasts ‘coward’ fans amid disgraceful referee abuse

NRL legend Billy Slater has fired up over a “coward act” after the weekend footy was overshadowed by a disgraceful referee drama.

NRL legend Billy Slater has taken aim at “coward” fans who abused referee Kasey Badger in the wake of Saturday’s dramatic clash between the Bulldogs and West Tigers.

The two-time Clive Churchill Medal winner and current Maroons coach called for the keyboard warriors who attacked the rookie referee to go and put their hand up to be a referee themselves before hurling abuse at the officials over mistakes.

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“If you think you can do a better job, go and do it, go and put your hand up to be a referee, don’t go on social media and be a coward and abuse someone,” Slater said on The Billy Slater Podcast, which you can watch above.

“If you think you can do better than the person that you’re having a go at, go and put the boots on, grab a whistle, or if you’re having a go at a player go and play the game, you’ve got no right to abuse someone anyway.

“I think the referees do a fantastic job, we need them, if we don’t have referees we don’t have a game.

“To sit behind a computer or a telephone and abuse someone for a mistake they’ve made because they’re having a go, I see that as a coward act.”

Maroons head coach Billy Slater was fuming at the abuse of Badger. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Slater also backed Badger’s decision to send David Klemmer to the bin for dissent after he stood over her and aggressively yelled criticism during a player scuffle.

“Yeah (it was a bad look) and he sat down for ten minutes, he hurt his team, Benji Marshall said in his press conference we need to be disciplined.

“At the end of the day you can’t do that and I applaud Kasey Badger for putting him in the bin, just saying ‘no I’m not going to stand for that.’”

Slater’s powerful words came after NRL players and officials were put on notice to address both their on-field interactions and post-game criticism of match officials with growing concerns about the capacity for their actions to “incite” poor behaviour among fans.

Football boss Graham Annesley delivered a stern dressing down on Monday in the wake of several incidents involving referee Badger in the Bulldogs’ 22-14 win over the West Tigers, including veteran prop David Klemmer attempting to stand over the rookie whistleblower during a player scuffle.

Badger was heavily criticised for her performance, in just her third match in charge.

David Klemmer argues with Kasey Badger. NRL Imagery

Klemmer was sin-binned for dissent and teammate Alex Seyfarth followed for headbutting as Badger struggled to take control of the fiery contest.

But Annesley said the issue of referee attacks was not “gender specific” and that everyone involved in the game had to more readily “accept” mistakes would be made and were simply “part of the game”.

“Even when referees do make mistakes they don’t make them because of their gender,” he said on Monday.

“They make mistakes because they are human. We somehow have this expectation that NRL referees get everything right. They can’t get it all right to everyone’s satisfaction. There needs to be some degree of acceptance to that.

“I do address my remarks today to coaches, players, club officials … whether they are criticising the Commission, or the CEO, or a referee, or the bunker, we need to have a better level of tolerance in our game for what are human errors.”

Annesley also lined up players for trying to “test” rookie referees like Badger because their actions could have “consequences” they can’t control.

Kasey Badger officiated a dramatic clash on the weekend. (Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)

“It doesn’t only happen to female referees. Kasey Badger, she’s a rookie referee, and players will try and test rookie referee regardless of gender,” he said.

“They’ll see how far they can push them. The referee accept they will be tested but we have to know where that line is and not overstep.

“It can have consequences that aren’t even intended by the payer. It can incite the fans., we can see incidents which flow from there.

“There’s a level of responsibility on everyone in the game.”

It comes after the Holman Barnes Group cancelled the sponsorship of a Wests Tigers fan podcast after co-host Rob Bechara wrote on his X account following the Bulldogs game:

“Haha! She’s got no idea. Back to the kitchen you dumb f …”

The NRL will confirm on Tuesday if Badger gets to control another match in Round 10.

- with NCA Newswire