NRL football boss Graham Annesley reprimanded the Bunker for an “unacceptable” missed penalty that cost the Warriors a shot on goal that would have put them ahead in the dying minutes of a game they eventually lost to the Bulldogs on golden point.
Monday’s apology will not help angry Warriors fans who were furious that Bulldogs backrow forward Jaeman Salmon was not penalised for late contact with Te Maire Martin that resulted in the Canterbury forward suffering a broken jaw.
Salmon was offered a two-match ban by the match review committee for the late hit, while Annesley was disappointed by bunker umpire Adam Gee, whose main concern was whether the contact was high, rather than that Martin had passed the ball long before it was hit.
“The Bunker spent the entire time on this review trying to figure out whether it was a high contact or not,” Annesley lamented.
“What they failed to do in this case was to properly consider the late contact and whether or not the defender could have escaped the tackle or at least reduced the speed of the tackle when it occurred.
“The match report committee took due account of the late nature of the contact and the fact that the ball was passed. They found no evidence of contact to the head or neck, therefore he was charged with dangerous contact due to the late nature of the tackle.
“The real question is whether this should have been penalised on the field and the answer to that is clearly ‘yes, it should have been’. Not because it was high, but because it was too late.”
“I know this happened at a critical time in the game. The Bunker did investigate the incident but did not give due consideration to the issue of delay.
“We believe this was a mistake by the referees. This is unacceptable, but this is exactly what happened and I wanted to make it absolutely clear how it came about, what they were focusing on and what they actually missed.”
Meanwhile, Annesley was unable to explain how referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski correctly calculated the number of tackles but raised his arm in the Cronulla-Gold Coast match, resulting in the Sharks kicking away possession by tackling earlier than necessary.
Przeklasa-Adamski was always in control of the game, but strangely raised his arm to signal that it was the last tackle, even though he had said “fourth”, which the Sharks players did not hear.
“The referees don’t actually miscalculate the number of tackles,” explained Annesley.
“But what happens is that on the fourth tackle, when the referee calls the fourth tackle, he actually says fourth tackle, for a reason that even the referee can’t explain. Obviously it’s a lapse in concentration. As he calls the fourth tackle, he puts his arm in the air, indicating the fifth tackle.
“So he calls a fourth tackle, but indicates a fifth tackle.
“I can’t explain it. The referee can’t explain it. Of course he feels terrible about it. But there’s no explanation for it, it’s just one of those things that happens involuntarily. The arm goes up, it shouldn’t go up on the fourth tackle, but it did.”
“We can only be open and transparent about it. This reduced the number of tackles by one, the Sharks should have had one more play before they had to kick or run on the fifth tackle.”