NRL head of football Graham Annesley has made a huge admission, conceding Mitchell Moses’ pass to spark the Eels first try against the Cowboys was a “marginal” forward pass.
Parramatta came away with a 24-20 victory over North Queensland on Friday night and the controversial four-pointer left a sour taste in the mouth of Cowboys fans.
Following an NRL review into the incident on Monday, Annesley confirmed referee Grant Atkins, alongside his tough judges, missed the forward pass.
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“After reviewing the Moses pass (on Monday morning) it does appear to be forward out of his hands, which is the only thing that matters under the laws of the game. It is marginal, but forward nonetheless,” Annesley said.
Many of the game’s greats including Wally Lewis and Greg Alexander slammed the referees inability to pick up on Moses’ blunder, with Lewis labelling the it as, “an absolute disgrace.”
While Blues legend Laurie Daley admitted it was a forward pass he didn’t think it was as obvious as others claimed it to be.
“It was forward but I didn’t it was as big of a forward pass as some of the ones I’ve seen this year,” Daley told Sky Racing’s Big Sports Breakfast.
“As in I don’t think it was a six metre, three metre forward pass.
“It was forward and it shouldn’t have been a try but I’ve seen a lot worse than that one.”
As it stands, the Bunker is unable to rule on forward passes and The Daily Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield put forward a number of changes to what can be reviewed.
“What annoys me Loz is the bunker nit picks all year and picks up stuff that doesn’t need to be picked up and then you have something that I thought was pretty obvious and they’re powerless to act,” Rothfield said.
“I would like to see and try and change to the bunker next year and the way it operates.
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“I’ve done something online which is running on the tele (The Daily Telegraph) website now, I think the bunker needs to be pulled back to try scoring situations and to captain’s challenges.
“Nothing else, no other stoppages during the game and I’d also give them the power to act on blatant forward passes so that’s why it wouldn’t have been allowed in the system I’m talking about.
“We’d have less stoppages during the game for stuff people don’t really care about, the little tiny things that do not matter.”
Forward pass technology has long been touted as the solution to fix missed forward passes.
Annesley admitted conversations have begun with companies who have technology developed to detect wayward passes, but it is for from being implemented in the NRL.
“We are still discussing it with the companies,” Annesley said.
“There is a number of companies who have possible solutions but we are not near taking anything (to the Commission).”
The Eels will be eager to break their 36-year premiership drought when they take on reigning premiers the Penrith Panthers in the grand final on Sunday night.
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