Gold Coast Titans coach has joined the pile-on of NRL referees after yet another inconsistency-filled weekend of decision-making.
The Titans, who fell short against the Roosters on Sunday afternoon at home, saw a game where six players were placed on report (five of them Roosters), Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was sin-binned, and the penalties mounted throughout the contest.
It came less than 48 hours after Stephen Crichton wasn't sin-binned for what looked an obvious decision on Friday evening, while a trio of Manly Sea Eagles players were sin-binned for minor offences during their loss to the Wests Tigers on Thursday.
There were also issues in the Rabbitohs game, with Cameron Murray sin binned on bunker advice, and in the Sharks' win over the Dragons when Jesse Ramien was sin binned for a high shot which appeared to come well after an error had been missed that would have stopped the play.
Hasler said there was a lot of confusion regarding inconsistencies in refereeing at the moment.
โThere was something like 18 penalties today. There's not a lot of confidence at the moment with players and their interpretation around what's a high shot and what isn't,โ Hasler said during his post-match press conference after the loss.
โThere are a lot of nervous individuals at the moment you can kind of see it with the officialdom.
โWho's running the officials? The officials are down on confidence at the moment and it's something we have to address pretty quickly heading into finals.
โI've got every confidence in (ARLC Chairman) Peter (V'landys) and (NRL CEO) Andrew (Abdo), but it's something we need to address as there's a lot of confusion.
โWe need to be really confident about that part of the game because there were a lot of penalties today and a lot of players put on report.
โAnyway that's my piece. We'll see where it goes.โ
It's understood Liam Kennedy, who was in the bunker when Stephen Crichton was allowed to stay on the field, will be stripped of that role for the remainder of the season, but it remains to be seen what other changes, if any, the NRL will make ahead of the final rounds of the competition.
“It came less than 48 hours after Stephen Crichton wasn’t sin-binned for what looked an obvious decision on Friday evening, while a trio of Manly Sea Eagles players were sin-binned for minor offences during their loss to the Wests Tigers on Thursday.”
Come on, Scott, keep your bias in check when publishing articles.
Crichton did not rum up out of the line or lean into the tackle, whereas at least some Manly players did, and received lower charges due to the media pile-on against poor Crichton.
My personal opinion is that I seriously doubt your peers, and you, would conduct yourselves the same way if he was still at the Panthers.
The Bulldogs are one of the greatest supported clubs in the game, with approximately half a million supporters nationwide, and no doubt more overseas.
Alienating them, is at your and your publishers own professional peril.