The Panthers found themselves on the wrong end of an “absolutely ruthless” bunker call as they battled to fight back from an early deficit against South Sydney in Saturday night’s preliminary final.
After trailing 12-0 early at Allianz Stadium the reigning premiers had three tries disallowed in a frustrating first half, but one call in particular sparked outrage among fans, pundits and greats of the game.
Winger Charlie Staines crossed in the corner after Nathan Cleary caused havoc in the build-up with a trademark bomb. However the try was checked and disallowed because Jarome Luai was ruled to have run behind Panthers prop James Fisher-Harris before passing the ball.
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While it appeared a call based on the black-and-white implementation of the obstruction rule, many were left fuming because none of Rabbitohs defenders were legitimately impeded from making a tackle.
Commentator Dan Ginnane called it “absolutely ruthless” while Steve ‘Blocker’ Roach said there was no way the nearest defender to the play — Souths winger Richie Kennar — was going to make the tackle.
“Have a look where Kennar is … there’s no way, there’s got to be common sense here,” Roach said on the Fox League commentary.
“It should be a try. There’s no way he was going to tackle him there. No way.”
Immortal Andrew Johns called the decision “laughable” on Channel 9’s coverage.
“There’ve been some howlers this year. It’s not black and white when a player runs behind (a defender),” he said.
Phil Gould called it a “digraceful” decision on Twitter and many agreed.
