The NRL have moved to clear up issues for fans, having opened their weekly footy briefing to questions.
In a new move for the NRL, they took to Instagram to ask fans what they wanted to know from the game's governing body, with the NRL's head of football Graham Annesley then addressing the issues during his weekly footy briefing on Monday.
In some of the key questions, he explained why the game won't return to two referees, why forward passes won't be called by the bunker, and moved to clarify that it's more than a single official in the bunker during matches.
Why the NRL won't return to two referees
The NRL ditched the two-referee system during COVID and haven't returned. Annesley now has confirmed the game has no intention of doing so either.
"The second referee on the field was eliminated or taken out, not only as a result of COVID, but we felt over a long period of time that having two officials on the field at the same time was creating some confusion," Annesley said.
"They were both on the field, they were both making calls, at times they were both influencing each other's decision on the field.
"Although there are many people who think there are too many voices in the ear of the referee now when you think about touch judges and the bunker, bearing in mind that the bunker doesn't actually intervene in general play, having the second referee on the field meant there were voices all the time and at times that was leading to confusion on the field.
"We felt it was worth going back to a single referee to see whether there was a significant difference between a single referee and two referees, and our assessment has been that since we reverted to a single referee, that there has been no singificant difference in decision making on the field."
Why doesn't the bunker doesn't rule on forward passes
Forward passes - particularly obvious ones - not being ruled by the bunker has long been a gripe of fans, but Annesley explained technology that may be able to call forward passes could also pick up passes which were actually backwards.
"What we found is, when we did it the first time which is probably back 20 years or more [allowing video intervention for forward passes], is that there was more questions raised and more controversy generated by the decisions of the bunker (then video referee) about forward passes because they were looking at the same pictures as everyone else," Annesley said.
"Do we think that adding the bunker to rule on forward passes using existing technology [will help]?
"At this point, no, but these are things that are reviewed by the commission every year, and these things are talked about every year. If the commission feels at any point in time that there is a benefit to re-introducing this or going to new technology, and there are several that we have looked at in the past that could help, but they are very expensive and sometimes you have to be careful what you wish for, because some technology will pick up passes as forward that most people would not even take a second look at."
How the bunker works during matches
With inconsistency continuing to be a buzz word when it comes to NRL officiating, Annesley explained more than a single person reviews decisions in the bunker during games.
"We have the bunker official who is ultimately responsible for making the decision, but what we have done over the last 12 months is introduce all of our current NRL referees into the bunker so that the same people making the decisions on the field are also the same people sitting in the bunker making decisions," Annesley said.
"However, we also have for every game a second person who is there as an advisor who is a former player. They sit in the bunker with the bunker officials, have access to all of the replays, and if they think that there is a football-related element that they should introduce into the consideration of the bunker official, or if they believe the bunker official is about to make an error because they haven't looked as a particular aspect [they can get involved].
"Many of the decisions in our game are not black and white. There is judgement involved, and in many of the decisions, yes the laws of the game are applied, but they are trying to make the game as open and free-flowing as possible. You can't do that if you apply the specific letter of the law."
