Manly and the Bulldogs aren’t on the same page

THE NRL has enough to worry about after the latest round of mishaps, but a new revelation suggests their woes will only get worse.

Frizell will fight the charge at the judiciary.

CANTERBURY star Moses Mbye has revealed his side was warned about the new crackdown on touching referees, with only accidental contact to avoid punishment.

However it’s emerged not all clubs believe they have been briefed about the NRL’s latest agenda.

Mbye’s comments come ahead of St George Illawarra forward Tyson Frizell’s date with the judiciary on Tuesday night, where he’ll fight a controversial one-game ban from Friday’s loss to the Bulldogs.

Many have ridiculed the grade-one charge the match review committee levelled at Frizell, who was pinged for making light contact with official Chris James as he headed back to the defensive line.

Mbye felt for Frizell but said “rules are rules”.

“We were briefed about it during the week last week, that it’s the rule. You can’t touch the referee and he touched the referee,” Mbye said on Tuesday.

“All you’ve got to do is open the rule book and just look at the rule and say he touched him, he’s out for the week. It’s written down in the rule book.”

The Bulldogs No. 7 admitted sometimes players aren’t aware of where referees are on-field.

“I’m lucky, I get to stay a little bit wide,” he said.

“But where Tyson was, he was in the middle there and it’s one of those things — it’s unfortunate. By the look of it, there was no malice and he didn’t mean to but he did touch him.” However, Manly’s forwards leader Nate Myles indicated they had not yet received the same warning from the NRL on the matter. Instead, he joked players would be more likely to find out through the media than the game’s officials.

Myles and co weren’t aware of the rule change.

“We have not been told about it yet,” he said.

“We will probably hear about it from Vossy (Fox Sports Commentator Andrew Voss) or someone like that.”

Myles also hinted at his confusion over the matter and the fact some clubs had been told before others.

“You would think (all teams would be briefed at the same time),” he said.

“The infringements that are being picked up on the field are not really matching the severity of the outcome, it is a little bit confusing in some ways.”

Cronulla skipper Paul Gallen also labelled Frizell’s charge “ridiculous” on Tuesday.

“I’m hoping it lasts five minutes,” Gallen told Sky Sports Radio’s Big Sports Breakfast.

“I hope they go in and do the formalities and it’s thrown out. That’s ridiculous.

“He put his hand up in a polite manner to go past him as you would in a shopping centre or if you’re walking across the street as someone is about to run into you. It was done in a polite manner.”

Frizell is the eighth player to be charged with making contact with a match official in 2016.