SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - MAY 15: NRL head of elite football operations Graham Annesley speaks during the 2019 State of Origin series launch at Bradfield Park on May 15, 2019 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

The NRL's head of football Graham Annesley has admitted the Canberra Raiders should never have been awarded a new set of six tackles just plays before icing their golden point thriller against the Dolphins on Saturday in Wagga Wagga.

A controversial moment appeared to see Hudson Young fumble a pass from Jack Wighton before the ball was ultimately pushed forward by Ray Stone who was attempting to make the tackle.

The match officials, without intervention from the bunker, however, ruled it was a knock-on against the Dolphins.

Jamal Fogarty would ultimately kick the game-winning field goal for the Raiders just plays later, but the NRL's head of football Graham Annesley said on Monday in his weekly footy briefing that the decision was wrong.

"This incident is not one that I'm happy to show you," Annesley said during his footy briefing.

"I talk about quite often that referees will make mistakes in games, and they do in most games make errors, but we have to hope that when they make those errors that they are as minimal as possible, in terms of the number of errors and of course that they don't have any direct bearing on the outcome of the game.

"Unfortunately in this particular incident, we have a mistake or an error that was missed by the match officials in the Raiders-Dolphins game in Wagga on Saturday, and it was just a few tackles before the winning field goal was kicked.

"I can understand how difficult this would have been in live play for the officials to pick up."

In explaining the decision, Annesley said the camera angles showed that Young indeed fumbled the ball, with the call made by the touch judge. He also said the main referee's view was obscured from the incident.

"Hudson Young attempts to catch the ball. The ball appears to be knocked down and goes backwards, and the game plays on. It was just after this, play goes on for another couple of tackles, then there is a HIA stoppage and then immediately following the HIA stoppage in golden point, the winning field goal was kicked."

"[In looking at the play] you'll see Jack Wighton with the ball, an inside pass and as Hudson Young goes to take the ball, his fingers touch the ball, he loses the ball, and then it comes off the upper arm of Stone which forces the ball backwards.

"This call was made by the touch judge. He just saw the ball propelled towards the Raiders' own goalline from the Dolphins and felt that the ball had been knocked down by the Dolphins, but missed the initial fumble by Hudson Young.

"It should have been a knock-on by Hudson Young."

Dolphins' coach Wayne Bennett told News Corp he was less than impressed with the decision, although didn't raise it during his post-game press conference on Saturday, instead suggesting the only bright spot he could find was that "Wagga is a nice place."

Bennett said technology should be used more than it currently is in golden point.

“I am angry because the game has got to do better,' Bennett said.

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA - SEPTEMBER 02: Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett smiles as he speaks to media during a NRL media opportunity at Rugby League Central on September 02, 2022 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)

“As I said, we all live within the 80 minutes (of regular time). But if you are going to go into golden point, there is so much riding on it, the competition is so close, and we are not the only team that is going to be impacted by this.

“But it is not good enough. I don't believe it is good enough. If we have no technology in the game, we live with it. But we have got all this technology now and when it suits the NRL they use it, and when it doesn't suit them they want to walk away from it.

“And there is a classic example of it. The hip-drop tackles at the moment are not the flavour of the month, and nor should they. But the point is they will stop the game, go back and give the penalty and correct what they missed.”

Annesley, when quizzed, said policy regarding use of the bunker could change, however, it was unlikely to do so in the middle of the season, and the commission would yet need to find a balance regarding the bunker's use and intervention in the continuity of play.

"Policy can change obviously, but policy wouldn't normally be reviewed until the end of the season," Annesley said when asked whether the bunker should have more influence in golden point.

"They are matters the commission would need to properly consider. There is a trade-off in all of these things. There is a trade-off in the continuity of play. Many people think the bunker and technology already interferes with our game too much.

"There is obviously a human element in our game. Players drop the ball with the line wide open, players miss tackles that lead to tries. All sorts of things happen on a football field that influence the outcome of the game. Referees are not immune to that.

2 COMMENTS

  1. Hey Scott,
    To be fair, Annesley rightly identified that this wasn’t necessarily ‘result altering’, despite your headline. It may have been but there is now no way to know either way.

  2. Tom B – you are quite right.

    And on the subject of “things that could be done better” wouldn’t it be helpful if Graham Annesley sat down with Andrew Abdo and explained to him that:

    – Head Of Football, not CEO, is the guy who makes comments about who did right, who did wrong, and who must do better.

    – the Referee error in the Raiders match was more likely to have had an impact on the result than the 14-men-on-the-field-for-15-seconds error would have had on the Souths result.

    Both incidents were unfortunate, but life has to move on.

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