New Zealand legends have backed the CEO of the Warriors’ major sponsor who claimed there was an “unconscious bias” against his club — with a leading NRL commentator suggesting the outburst is reflective of a growing resentment that’s been building across the ditch.
Jason Paris, chief executive of One NZ, initially accused NRL referees of “cheating of the highest order” in a tweet following New Zealand’s 18-6 loss to the Panthers.
On Monday, Paris retracted those claims and said “all we want is consistency”.
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“A bit of interest in my support for the mighty @NZWarriors Just to clear things up – I do not think the @NRL referees are cheating,” he tweeted.
“They come to work everyday to do their best job for the game. My comments were made in the heat of the moment as a passionate fan.
“However, I do believe that there is unconscious bias happening every week against the Warriors & it needs to be addressed.
“All we want is consistency, but we are not getting it. Take opinions out of it & analyse the video footage from past games & compare our decisions vs other teams.
“I think it will find that we are being disadvantaged – then we can work out why & take steps to fix it. We will always back our team.”
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NRL head of football Graham Annesley blasted the tweets as well, saying no comment “could be worse than the type of comment” from Paris.
But Warriors great Logan Swann and Dean Bell echoed Paris’ claims and Swann has even taken the leap to contact the NRL.
“In the context of these games recently something needs to be said. You can’t keep sweeping it under the carpet,” Swann, who played 195 games for the Warriors, said to Stuff.co.nz.
“For the first time in a long time, I have actually taken the time to contact the NRL in disgust with some of the calls and decisions that have been made by officials.
“I haven’t had a reply back, but I’ve never felt compelled to do that before.”
Swann also referenced two incidents prior to the Warriors and Panthers’ clash which saw debutant Demitric Sifakula sent to the sin bin for a strike on Nathan Cleary.
“There was the shoulder charge during the Roosters game and the player (Sitili Tupouniua) went on to score a try in the set after,” Swann said.
“Also in the Storm game, Reimis Smith went up to contest the ball and there was one camera angle that would have shown he touched the ball, they would have seen that if they slowed it down.
“But they didn’t bother going back to that camera angle again and went to a couple of other cameras to get the point across that there was no touch.
“So it’s really frustrating and to have quite a few people mentioning things, there really needs to be something done about it, otherwise it looks amateurish.
“The NRL is the greatest game on the planet, so they do need to make sure the people officiating the game are doing a good job, because at the moment it’s been substandard.”
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Meanwhile, Bell, who captained the Warriors’ debut team in 1995, also called for consistency from NRL referees.
“How I was brought up was that you’ve got to be better than the referee,” Bell said.
“When games are so tight these days it does make a difference. I am torn, in that the Warriors have got to be better to win those games and especially with Andrew Webster in charge they’ll be the first to admit that.
“But it would be nice to have some consistency. You see other games and watch someone get a knock to the head and think he’s going to get penalised or sent to the sin bin, yet for some reason those calls aren’t happening for the Warriors at the moment.”
Fox League commentator Dan Ginnane described Paris’ apology as “pathetic” but said he was likely being viewed as a “hero” in New Zealand simply for expressing a sentiment that has been bubbling for some time.
“This is a feeling going across all of New Zealand rugby league fans — is that they have been dudded for a long time,” Ginnane said on The Back Page.
“He’s only expressing sentiments that have spread like wildfire. I think they feel aggrieved going all the way back to the Covid period when they really did help save the game by sacrificing themselves, coming over here and leaving their families for one, two years
“They were always going to be non-competitive in that environment but they came here to make sure we had eight games a week, so that television contracts weren’t null and void/
“They did a lot more than any of the other 15 clubs and I think this year there’s a bit of frustration that they haven’t really been given a tangible ‘thank you’ or tangible compensation.”
Ginnane said there was “nothing special” for the Warriors in this year’s NRL draw, questioning why they weren’t allowed to host their traditional Anzac Day showdown with the Melbourne Storm — a match shown at 9pm local time in New Zealand.
“They’re going, ‘hang on, after everything we’ve done for the game can we host one of these games please?’ And I think they have a very fair case
“… It just speaks to the idea that they’re just indentured servants to rugby league and Australia.
”Then they were dudded, they think they were dudded, by the referees in that game (against the Storm). Now the pot was boiling. Then there were a few decisions in this game (against Penrith) and now it’s overflowing
“… and that’s why this guy is a hero, because he’s on the front line saying what every New Zealand sporting fan thinks.”
It has since been revealed that Paris could face a potential defamation payout for his comments, worth up to $1 million.
That is according to Sydney lawyer Paul McGirr who told The Daily Telegraph: “It appears to be defamatory to me, very much so, and it leaves very little doubt that he is referring to the person officiating the bunker (Butler) and also the referee (Smith)”.
He also said Paris’ comments labelling refereeing decisions as “the worst cheating ever” suggested it is worse that historic sporting scandals such as Lance Armstrong’s doping.
Rugby League Match Officials boss Matt Cecchin also confirmed his organisation has contacted lawyers regarding Paris’ comments.
