The NRL have urged social media trolls to lay off touch judge Michael Wise, after he was embroiled in the controversial ending to Melbourne’s loss to Canberra.

Wise is set to be dropped after incorrectly ruling Storm winger Suliasi Vunivalu had touched the sideline as he caught a short kick off in the penultimate minute of the 12-10 loss.

Top referee Ashley Klein could also be axed following the match, with the NRL’s head of football Graham Annesley refusing to guarantee his spot in week two of the finals.

The State of Origin referee missed two penalties that would have gone to Melbourne, and also failed to send Jarrod Croker to the sin-bin for a professional foul.

But Annesley said Wise had struggled most with the fallout, after becoming the victim to abuse and threats online following the tight finish.

“Some of the stuff that has been floating around on social media, including vilification of him as a person and threats, are completely unwarranted,” Annesley said.

“No one is out there trying to make errors. These people have families and they commit to the task.

“Yes he made a bad decision but it doesn’t make him a bad person or a bad official.

“People who make threats and verbal character assassinations of people online really need to pull their heads in.”

Meanwhile, Klein’s week-two fate will be decided on Tuesday after officiating in Origin and last year’s grand final.

He has come under fire for failing to penalise and sin-bin Elliott Whitehead for taking Ryan Papenhuyzen out off the ball as he supported a Melbourne break.

Assistant referee Chris Sutton had yelled out for the penalty to be blown, but Klein has since told officials he didn’t hear that over the crowd noise.

Klein then penalised Croker on the next play for holding down, but failed to sin-bin him for the professional foul given the Storm’s momentum from the break.

“In either of those cases the offending player should have been sin-binned,” Annesley said.

Annesley also said Klein was wrong to not penalise Whitehead earlier in the match for a strip, when Sutton had again told him to call the indiscretion.

The football boss did however defend the 21 penalties blown in the match, which was more than double any other game from the weekend.

But when asked whether Klein would still be in first grade this week, Annesley said: “I can’t answer that right now.

“We’re still working our way through the assessment of the games.

“We’re clearly going from four games down to two. They can’t all be there next week.”