The NRL wants the Top Gun of video refs in the bunker. It can’t come quick enough

Before Wayne Bennett took the driver out of the bag and whacked the NRL down the middle of the fairway over match-day officiating, he phoned Peter V’landys to tell him what was coming.

The Dolphins coach and ARL Commission chairman have a close bond, forged during the COVID-19 lockdown when Bennett became a critical sounding board.

But Bennett, like the rest of us, has had enough. On Friday, he was handed the 1-wood and duly took the big dog for a walk in an interview with Fox Sports.

He unloaded on the bunker, sin-bins, send-offs, and weak refereeing around players running into melees.

Always an ideas man, Bennett wants referees to only sin-bin players for professional fouls, and for players who have been sent off – like NSW centre Joseph Suaalii in Origin I – to return after 10 minutes to maintain the integrity of the contest.

Mostly, he lamented the inconsistency that players, coaches, and fans have endured in this game since Adam picked up a ball and ran the length of the field and scored in the corner of the Garden of Eden.

Wayne Bennett is unhappy with the NRL over match-day officiating.Credit: Getty

“I have no doubt they are saying to themselves in there at the NRL, ‘Here comes Bennett again, whinging’,” he said. “But no one rings me up from the NRL.”

That comment surprised the NRL because it has been consulting Bennett and others about an overhaul of officiating, especially the bunker.

Both V’landys and NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo were cagey when I spoke to them, mostly because nothing is set in stone and whatever is introduced won’t be until next season.

But at the heart of the revolution will be the introduction of a smaller team of officials in the bunker to ensure there is consistency from match to match.

I’m told they will have better technology at their fingertips, meaning they can make quicker and better decisions. (I recall former NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg promising something similar when the bunker was introduced in 2016).

Which all sounds just fabulous, of course. Quicker, better, more accurate.

Yet even having the “Top Gun” of video referees overseeing proceedings won’t eliminate human error, and nor will it have everyone on the same page about what’s a penalty, what’s a sin-bin, and what’s a send-off.

It won’t stop coaches from blasting referees in post-match media conferences to shift the focus from their side’s poor performances.

It won’t stop players from staying down after incidental contact to their neck or head to milk a penalty – or, better still, to have a rival player sent to the sin-bin.

Dragons five-eighth Kyle Flanagan is chipped by Manly’s daly Cherry-Evans after being sent for a concussion test.Credit: Getty Images

It won’t stop defenders acting like they’ve been taken out by a sniper atop the grandstand so that a try will be denied for an obstruction.

The same coaches who once whinged about rugby league becoming “soccer” are now satisfied with their players writhing on the ground in pain after a rival player accidentally touches the back of their neck.

Without sounding like a broken record on this topic, rugby league is confused about what it wants to be: the tough, gladiatorial sport it once was or a cleanskin code that attracts new followers and participants while also avoiding legal action over how it handles concussion.

Bennett’s call for players to be sin-binned only for professional fouls has merit, if only because of the vagaries of the bunker when deciding what merits 10 minutes off the field and what doesn’t.

Ellery Hanley is assisted from the field after being tackled by Terry Lamb during the 1988 grand final.Credit: Fairfax Media

The problem is that concussion protocols are here to stay. If a player who has copped one around the chops – accidental or otherwise – is taken from the field for 15 minutes for a Head Injury Assessment, is it not fair that the player responsible for the high tackle sits down, too?

As for players who are sent off returning after 10 minutes, that’s all well and good until a big match and someone wants to channel their inner Terry Lamb in the 1988 grand final and whack the opposition’s version of Ellery Hanley.

But Bennett is right: the match-day officiating is a mess, and there was no better evidence of it than Origin II.

NSW centre Latrell Mitchell was penalised and put on report for a high shot on Maroons winger Xavier Coates. Back-rower Liam Martin was penalised and put on report for a lifting tackle on Reuben Cotter.

If it had been an NRL match, both would have been sin-binned, but both stayed on the field.

In the 50th minute, Martin was sin-binned for patting Jaydn Su’a on the head, along with Maroons forward Pat Carrigan, for running into a melee, which is nothing more than an aggressive cuddle these days.

The Victorians at the MCG on Wednesday night must be wondering what it was all about. So you can hit someone’s head with a swinging arm, but you can’t pat them on it? What the what?

V’landys wasn’t upset with what Bennett had to say on Friday. Everyone’s entitled to an opinion, he says.

But fixing how the game is adjudicated must be atop the chairman’s agenda for the rest of the year, ahead of setting up teams in Botswana and playing matches in Las Vegas.

On his first day as chairman, he publicly declared that “fixing the referees” was his priority following the six-to-go debacle in the 2019 grand final.

Five seasons later, fans are less confident in the system than ever before.

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