The NRL's head of football Graham Annesley has slammed NRL coaches in an unprovoked rant during his weekly footy briefing on Tuesday afternoon.
Justin Holbrook and Todd Payten have been among the coaches who have made claims that the NRL's refereeing group favour top teams with penalty and six again counts, while other coaches have pointed at specific incidents on occasion throughout the opening six rounds.
Officiating has never been far from the spotlight this season, with sin bins and penalties often appearing inconsistent, causing widespread discussion on social media over the state of the game.
Annesley said however it was teams deliberately slowing the game down at the bottom of the ladder, rather than the refereeing, causing lopsided counts.
"The teams at the top end of the ladder, they control the ball. They spend long periods of time in possession," Annesley said.
"The teams at the other end of the ladder, they're spending much more time defending.
"You're much more likely to concede offences when you're defending.
"You'll be offside more, you'll be committing offences in the ruck. You'll frankly be trying to slow the ruck down.
"We all know that that's a tactic in our game to try and slow the good sides down.
"So these things do become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
"I just wanted to be very clear here - the process that the match officials go through in making any decision is based entirely on what they see."
The number of six agains in the competition has skyrocketed in recent weeks after Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V'Landys threatened all clubs a fortnight ago that wrestling was creeping back into the game during the opening weeks of the season.
It followed a penalty crackdown early in the season following an off-season change of rule allowing for a penalty to be blown when an attacking team was within their own 40-metre zone.
