The NRL has conceded the bunker needs to scale back its game-day involvement while placing blame on players for the dramatic rise in sin bins and penalties.
Fresh from a controversial weekend of games in which 18 players were binned, including 15 instances relating to contact of the head, NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo said the bunker had become too involved and there had been a “slight over-reaction” after several incidents were missed earlier this season.
Abdo said one factor that could not be overlooked was the number of high tackles across the opening eight rounds, which was up from 201 last season to 379 this year.
The game’s boss did not expect a similar number of players being marched during Magic Round this weekend.
“There’s been no crackdown, and there’s been no policy change,” Abdo told Mark Levy on radio station 2GB.
“A couple of weeks ago we had a round where the refs missed a few high tackles that should have been sin-binned.
“We communicated through the clubs saying, ‘That’s not the standard, the standard is what is has always been – it’s been consistent the last couple of seasons’.
South Sydney’s Latrell Mitchell is sent to the bin on Friday night.Credit: Getty Images
“What we’ve seen now is a slight over-reaction the other way, which is unfortunate. I get the frustration around the bunker intervening in play. That’s certainly not something any of us want to see.
“[The bunker intervening] is meant for serious acts of foul play, or the howlers. There have probably been too many of those where [the call] disrupts play and it gets called back. That’s something we’ll work on.
“We’ve had some terrific football, but we’ve also seen a huge increase in the number of high tackles this season.
Manly’s Siosiua Taukeiaho is sent to the sin bin by Belinda Sharpe.Credit: Getty Images
“Last year up until round eight, we had 200 high tackles. Now we’ve had 379. With that is going to come an increase in penalties and sin-bins.
“We’re also calling on the players and clubs to be more disciplined, and always think about player safety as part of how they prepare for a game.
“I think there has been too much intervention. The bunker is meant to intervene if there is a serious act of foul play or there’s a howler. We don’t want the howlers missed. But there has been too much intervention.”
Abdo later said: “It’s a collective responsibility. It’s a fast game, it’s an insane game, and we want to make it, as far as possible, a safe game. The onus is on all of us to protect players. In this particular case, the focus has been on ensuring we reduce, as far as possible, head-high tackles.
As for what fans could expect at Magic Round, Abdo said: “Hopefully we will see plenty of good games and great football. We don’t want to see any penalties for high tackles or any sin bins. But the policy will remain the same. If there is direct forceful contact [to the head] with no mitigation, there’s a risk the player will be sent to the bin and charged by the match-review committee.
“That’s always been the case. What we don’t want to see is too much intervention, and taking the play back if it’s missed live. It will be reserved for serious acts of foul play.”
Sources with knowledge of the situation not authorised to speak publicly confirmed the bunker over-stepped the mark on Sunday night when informing referee Grant Atkins that Wests Tigers forward Fonua Pole needed to go to the bin for a high shot on Tom Hazelton. The Tigers were reduced to 12 men late in the second half with the game in the balance. The match-review committee only deemed the tackle a grade-one careless high-tackle on Monday.
Immortal Andrew Johns was scathing of what he described as a shift in officiating on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show, while Queensland coach Billy Slater said, “Referees are jumpy about this situation because they’re told by [NRL hierarchy] ‘this is what we want it to look like’.”
“The breakdown of this sending players to the bin is absolutely farcical,” Johns said.
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