Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V'Landys has confirmed a review into whether the NRL bunker should be ruling on forward passes will be conducted this off-season.
Under current rules, forward passes are one of the only areas of the game the bunker are unable to adjudicate on.
It has long been the case, with reasoning around camera angles, positioning, and the impossibility of telling if a ball has travelled forward or not in some circumstances all trotted out as reasoning by those at NRL HQ.
The bunker have been given an ever-increasing permit over games in recent seasons, although the NRL's head of football Graham Annesley has gone to great lengths at times this year to confirm the bunker can not tip a referee off to decisions in general play unless a review is called, a general stoppage to play is in progress or a captain asks for a captain's challenge to a decision on-field.
On Saturday evening, the Broncos were able to skip ahead in the second half of their preliminary final against the New Zealand Warriors after an obviously forward pass from Reece Walsh was missed by Gerard Sutton and his officiating team.
While Warriors coach Andrew Webster refused to blame the pass for the loss, he said it was very obviously a wrong decision, and fans were left speechless at the time of the incident on social media.
Speaking to News Corp, V'Landys admitted the decision could trigger a review into bunker operations, saying any assistance that can be provided to on-field decision-makers should be.
โWe should look at it, absolutely. Any help we can give the referees we should," he told the publication.
โI have the greatest admiration for the job all of our referees do.
โBut any assistance we can give them to relieve some of the pressure would be commonsense.
โWe'll look at it during the off-season in our general review.โ
Technology in match balls has been floated in recent years, although no progress has been made to determine whether it would be successful in tipping off referees over forward passes.
V'Landys said the bunker could be the answer, given it can tell whether the ball was forward out of the hands.
The call may be seen as innocuous given Brisbane skipped away to a 42-12 win over the Warriors, but given the scoreline was 24-12 at the time, it could have made a difference.
Forward passes have long been a bain of NRL fans however, with many missed this year, and others called when the ball seemingly hadn't gone forward at all.
Sutton was promoted into a refereeing position for Saturday evening's preliminary final after a pair of howlers the week prior by Ashley Klein, who was dropped to the bunker.
It now seems almost certain that Adam Gee will referee his first grand final next Sunday evening when the Penrith Panthers clash with the Brisbane Broncos, with official appointments to be revealed by the NRL on Tuesday.
