NRL boss Graham Annesley will meet with the game’s referees on Monday afternoon to address a concerning spike in officiating errors.
Annesley admitted at least four costly mistakes were made in total across the Wests Tigers-Sydney Roosters and Newcastle-Warriors games over the weekend.
All four either led to, or robbed a side of a crucial try, as was the case for Warriors winger Ken Maumalo against the Knights.
A week after describing their round 15 efforts as “sloppy”, Annesley doubled down on Monday by declaring their current efforts “just aren’t good enough.”
After meeting with bunker management on Monday morning, Annesley gave his weekly media briefing before heading out to ANZ Stadium to talk to officials.
“I do want to talk particularly to their coaching staff about a range of things we’ve seen over the last two weeks that just aren’t good enough,” Annesley said.
“I want to make sure they’re undertaking the necessary steps to put the referees in the best possible position post-Origin leading into the finals series.”
Annesley, who has only met with the referees a couple of times this season, said preventing human errors was impossible.
“But some of the mistakes we’ve seen over the last few weeks simply aren’t good enough. They’re mistakes that shouldn’t have been made,” he said.
“We need to try and find out why and what they’re doing to hopefully ensure it doesn’t happen again leading into the finals series.”
Annesley also said the whisteblowers should’ve called time off when Warriors centre Peta Hiku was concussed a play before the Knights scored on Saturday.
Annesley also admitted referee Gavin Badger incorrectly told Warriors captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck that is was up to trainers to inform them off hurt players.
Badger was dropped earlier this season after failing to stop play when former North Queensland winger Nene Macdonald had a fractured ankle.
Replays showed Badger was aware Hiku was on the ground.
“He said, ‘Watch him’. In other words, keep an eye on him,” Annesley said.
“But that’s not good enough. That’s saying, ‘I’ve identified that there’s an issue there, but let’s just keep an eye on it’.
“Keep an eye on him is not the right answer. Stop the game and have him assessed is the right answer.”
NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg said he couldn’t just shrug off the increase in bunker blunders and that his team of video officials simply need to be better.
“There have been some errors our match officials have made – I can’t sugar-coat it,” Greenberg said in Melbourne.
“We don’t want to see errors but in saying that we are dealing with human beings so errors will happen from time to time.
“But one error is too many.”
