NRL head of football elite competitions Graham Annesley has defended the match officials and put the blame for the record seven sin bins in Souths’ win over the Roosters squarely on the players.
Annesley stood by the match officials, who he believes were given no choice but to keep sending players to the sin bin, as they players repeatedly crossed the line of acceptable standards.
“Clearly a lack of discipline by the players,” Annesley said when asked what he put the sin bins down to.
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“The match officials react to what happens.
“We certainly don’t go out in any game with the instructions to match officials that they should be dismissing players from the field whether it be for a temporary period of 10 minutes in the sin bin or for the remainder of the match.
“Our objective is to try and keep everyone on the field, but that is not in the hands of the match officials. That is in the hands of the players and how they approach the game.
“Yesterday we saw a whole range of incidents that took place where the players frankly took those decisions out of the hands of the referee and the bunker.
“It was disappointing that we saw as many incidents in the game as we did.
“To the credit of the coaches after the game they didn’t try and shift any of the blame to the match officials.
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“It was a very intense physical game. There was a lot of emotion in it and all of that is fine. We don’t have a problem with any of that. That’s the nature of our game. It is very physical and intense and very emotional.
“But players know where that line in the sand is about compliance with the rules and what is accepted in the game. What is acceptable and what is not.
“Yesterday on multiple occasions they crossed that line. That is not the fault of the referee. That is not the fault of the bunker not the touch judges. That’s the actions of the players.”
Annesley admitted the mass sin bins was a poor look for the game in such a big contest, but believes the match officials were backed into a corner by the players.
“I don’t think it is necessarily what we want to see in our game,” Annesley said.
“The game has worked very hard over a long period of time going back decades to eliminate foul play from our game.
“Most of the incidents in our game are nothing more than accidents. But yesterday the players overstepped the mark on a number of occasions.
“I know it was a big game. I know it was important. I know the loser was going to be eliminated.
“But that is no different form the other three games that we saw across the weekend and in those three games the players complied with those acceptable standards.
“We have a responsibility as a game to the entire community and that is not an acceptable way to play the game in some of those occasions.
“There was a lot of good football interspersed with those incidents, so let’s not lose sight of that either. It was a great game of football for a large portion of the game.
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“But these incidents that took place unfortunately marred the spectacle and brought the referees into the game when there was no need for the referees to be brought into the game.”
Annesley defended the referees amid suggestions they lost control of the game.
“No I don’t, in fact I commend them for staying the course,” Annesley said.
“There would be occasions in the past where some might have expected the referees to say, gee I can’t put any more players in the bin and wear the referee down so to speak.
“There might be some people that would have expected that to happen. But we have worked very hard too with consistency with the referees and they not what is acceptable and what is not acceptable in the game.
“So when they are confronted with circumstances they also have a responsibility to act.
“So no I don’t think they lost control. In fact I think they were the only ones in some cases that maintained control and had they not taken the action that they took we could have seen an even more serious incident happen in that game.
“So I commend them for staying the course in that game and making sure they maintained that standard.”
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