Despite developments in technology to rule on blatant forward passes, NRL head of football Graham Annesley has explained that the league is still some time away from introducing it to the Bunker.
The queries have been posed of Annesley following Cameron Smith's try assist in the Storm's hard fought win over South Sydney.
Smith's pass to set up Tino Fa'asuamaleaui was at the time called "a metre forward" by pundit Brad Fittler.
Annesley stated that further replays showed the suspect pass was in fact flat and that it would be impossible to rule the pass forward with any conviction.
This instance, Annesley believes, is why the league would be dicing with death introducing any technology that was not able to eliminate errors entirely.
“I heard some discussion around the fact it was blatantly forward, metres forward, I don’t think (the additional replays) support the fact that it was as blatant that perhaps it was made out,” Annesley said.
“Ultimately I will let everyone make up their own minds.”
When posed with the question of when any new technology would be implemented, the head of football had this to say:
“I don’t have a time frame on it.”
“We are constantly looking at technology.
“We need to make sure that the right technology is available.
“There is a lot of developments happening very rapidly actually across the globe in other sports. There is a lot happening in football in the UK in particular.
“But it is not at the point where we need it to be yet.
“It is not something we will probably see in the next 12 months or more.
“It is just a matter of when technology that will do what we need it to do is developed.
“The moment there is technology that can do it with some degree of accuracy of course we’d be open to it but then it will come to cost.”
Although fans viewing the Friday night clash could see multiple replays of Smith's pass, it has again fanned flames as to why match officials are not afforded the same vision.
Despite some camera angles creating a 'false impression', Annesley believes that it is paramount that all angles are analysed.
“I have showed a few during the course of the year."
“There was one in particular which showed if you look at two different camera angles, one from one side of the field and one from the other, you’d swear blind you were looking at two different passes.
“So that has always been the problem.
“And particularly straight off the ruck (as Smith’s pass was), you do see a lot of flat passes. Now flat passes are OK, as long as they are not forward.
“And so when you get a camera, in the case of that, the camera was on the 50m line and that happened only a couple of metres out from the goal line, it is almost impossible to say with any degree of certainty whether the ball has gone forward or backwards.
“It puts it in a different context.”
