Jared Maxwell has been dumped for round two of the NRL season, with referees’ coach Bill Harrigan admitting the whistleblower dudded Cronulla in Sunday’s 17-16 golden-point loss to Wests Tigers.
The Sharks were on the verge of a thrilling round-one upset when halfback Todd Carney’s field goal attempt was charged down in the first minute of extra-time, with the ball bouncing towards Tigers five-eighth Benji Marshall.
Marshall knocked on as the defence moved in to tackle him, with Maxwell penalising the Sharks for being in front of the kicker.
The Tigers marched upfield from the penalty to set up Marshall’s match-winning field goal at the end of the set and, given the timing of the blunder, it could be argued the mistake cost Cronulla two competition points.
And Harrigan made it clear on Monday that Maxwell’s mistake was unacceptable.
“We are not going to drop every referee who makes a mistake but this is a mistake that clearly should not have been made and the circumstances of this decision warrant the action we have taken,” Harrigan said in a statement.
NRL rules stipulate that players are deemed to be on-side following a charge-down.
“That decision was incorrect,” Harrigan wrote on NRL.com on Monday.
“The players were no longer offside due to the act of the charge-down. The touch judge and the referee got that decision wrong.”
Harrigan said the correct decision would have been to award the Sharks a scrum in the Tigers’ red zone, following Marshall’s knock-on.
Sharks coach Shane Flanagan was irate following the game, claiming refereeing decisions cost his side the match.
Flanagan also questioned a no-try ruling on centre Colin Best late in the match, but Harrigan confirmed the correct decision had been made to rule Best had committed a double movement while scoring the try.
“I 100 per cent agree with the double-movement ruling on the Colin Best no-try call, as does referees co-coach Stuart Raper,” Harrigan said.
“Colin Best’s arm carrying the ball hits the ground, his momentum stops and then there is a second effort to get the ball over the line.
“At no stage does the tackler drop off him, so the tackle was correctly deemed complete.
“There is no grey area with this ruling; it is a clear double-movement.”
In his post-match comments, Flanagan claimed video referee Steve Clark had indicated to him the try would’ve been awarded if it had been sent upstairs – but Harrigan said no conversations took place between Sharks officials and the referees.
“It is important to make clear that at the end of the game or at any time during the game, there was no conversation between Sharks officials and the referees,” he said.
