In his weekly briefing, NRL football boss Graham Annesley has backed referee Grant Atkins for making the "absolutely correct" call.
During extra time between the Dolphins and Gold Coast Titans, Atkins penalised Titan Erin Clark for offside, which gifted the Dolphins the two points.
Atkins gave Clark multiple warnings and was finally penalised as he rushed out of the line to apply pressure to Jamayne Isaako with scores at 21-21.
On Monday, Annesley praised Atkins for making the right call, whilst other referees may have kept their whistle in their pockets and not penalised Clark for the infringement.
"It is a big call for the referee, but it's one that he had to make, and he didn't shirk it," Annesley said viaย Fox Sports.
โThe penalty is absolutely correct.
โI know there's no criticism of the penalty โ or very little criticism for the penalty itself โ the only criticism I've heard is that this maybe doesn't happen in other cases.
โIt is a big call for the referee, but it's one that he had to make, and he didn't shirk it.โ
"There's been some suggestion in the Clark situation that it's probably no different to other situations for field goals. You can hear the referee call Erin Clark out of play.
"There have been many other incidents during the course of the year where the referee will call a player out of play, and they will stop or they'll drop out. In this case, he doesn't."
Earlier in his briefing, Annesley showed footage of Kodi Nikorima, who was able to put strong pressure on Tanah Boyd's attempt at a field goal. This came after Kieran Foran criticised Atkins for letting an offside infringement slide.
Despite Foran's on-field criticism, Annesley played audio which illustrated the referee warning the Dolphins defenders and Nikorima was in line with him rather than in front.
"Both attempted to either keep their team in the game or to win the game, they're clearly going to take a kick that's going to result in points and you just want that kick to be taken fairly," he added.
"In the case of the Nikorima pressure it was, even though he got a touch on it.
"In the case of the Clark it wasn't, he got away too early."
