The NRL's head of football Graham Annesley has claimed referee Ashley Klein had a better view than television cameras to rule on a forward pass during Friday night's qualifying final between the Sydney Roosters and Penrith Panthers.
After being blown out of the contest in the early going, the Roosters ran on a pair of tries directly after halftime, and looked to have a third which could have cut the lead to as few as eight points.
But a pass - which replays indicated was perfectly fine - was ruled as forward by referee Klein.
The call stunted the Roosters' momentum and any chances of a comeback, with Trent Robinson claiming during his post-match press conference that Klein was the only person who believed the pass was forward.
"No, I didn't think it was forward. I don't think anybody thought it was forward except for the ref. Even looking at the replays and the angle of the pass, that's a big call in that moment, and you can't get that wrong," Robinson said when quizzed directly on the try during his post-match press conference.
Captain James Tedesco, who had been the recipient of the pass, also suggested the ball had never travelled forward.
"I didn't think it was forward. We probably would have scored off the back of it and it would have been a different contest, but I didn't agree that it was forward," Tedesco said.
But speaking at his weekly footy briefing on Monday afternoon, Annesley took a different view, claiming Klein was in a better position than the TV cameras to see the pass, even if it had looked backwards on replay.
โI have lost count of the number of times this year that I have been asked about passes whether they are forward or back,โ Annesley said on Monday.
โI think that particular decision when you look at it on the broadcast view it is not clearly a forward pass.
โIn fact looking form a broadcast perspective you could argue that it looks like it is an okay pass.
โBut the referee is right there. He makes an instinctive judgment based on what he sees. He reacts immediately. He's in a good position.โ
Technology in calling forward passes has been a long debated point in the NRL, but Annesley said the referee is still the best person to make the call.
โWe can argue the point about forward passes,โ Annesley said.
โThere were probably, if we go through all four games, we'd find other passes that you could argue the point against, in any of those games, with any of those teams involved.
โSo, I'm not trying to avoid giving you an answer. It's just that, was it forward or was it not? I mean, it doesn't look forward on the camera angle.
โBut if we had the ability, which we don't, to have a camera and a drone hovering directly above that to give you the exact perspective, would it show something different? I don't know.โ
The blokes running this game really need to do something about THIS IDIOT ANNESLEY WHO CALLS MYSELF THE REF’S BOSS, he is the biggest problem for the game. He has no idea of the rules he backs every call the refs make even know there 99.9% always WRONG. Time to give him the sack from the job, i bet he thinks that manly pass to bullmore wasn’t forward ever. Never heard one bloke apologize so much , that tells me he’s not that good at his job, (Video ref’s and ref’s boss should be gone) from the game there killing rugby league.