Some of rugby league‘s biggest legends have taken aim at the NRL‘s Bunker over a bizarre call during Thursday night’s game.
Manly was tied 22-22 with the Dolphins in a Suncorp Stadium thriller when fullback Tom Trbojevic fielded a bomb deep in his own half.
The Sea Eagles No.1 proceeded to lose the ball when attempting to get up, with referee Ashley Klein calling for a Dolphins scrum feed.
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But Manly challenged the decision, and review official Gerard Sutton found Dolphins prop Jesse Bromwich had accidentally grazed the face of Trbojevic as the latter fell in the tackle.
As a result he called a penalty against Bromwich, handing the Sea Eagles a kick downfield. Another penalty in the ensuing set allowed Manly to take a 24-22 lead – then, perhaps luckily for Sutton, the Dolphins won the game with a late try.
League icon Paul Vautin could not believe the Bunker’s decision to penalise Bromwich.
“Are you serious? Our game is finished,” Vautin fumed in commentary for Nine.
“It is finished if you are penalising that. Honestly. I bet you the bloke who made that decision has never stepped on to a football field. What a stitch-up.”
Vautin was asked about the incident again post-game and was still just as fired up.
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“It was embarrassing for the game,” Vautin said.
“There is not one player in the last 116 years who would say that’s a penalty. This little tiny hand on the face, it was absolutely nothing.
“Gerard Sutton, he’s a very experienced referee, been around quite a while — I can’t see how he could find fault in that.
“That is just wrong. I can’t even talk about it, it was that bad. It was awful.”
Cowboys legend Johnathan Thurston agreed the penalty was a bad look for rugby league.
“Look, we just want consistency,” Thurston told Nine.
“There are tons of these every game. That is a tap. There is no forceful contact. It needs to be forceful contact to the head and then that is a penalty.
“If you tap him like that, that is not forceful contact. I was dumbfounded by that penalty.
“Like Fatty (Vautin) said, rugby league has died tonight after seeing that.”
In the cold light of day the following morning, Maroons great Darren Lockyer was asked about the penalty on Nine’s Today.
While the emotion had dissipated by that stage, Lockyer still couldn’t quite believe what he had seen.
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“They got it wrong, without a doubt,” Lockyer said.
“If we are going to penalise little taps like that… what I hate seeing is players lying down trying to milk penalties, I don’t think that’s a good look for the game.
“If penalties are going to be awarded for that sort of contact you are going to see players lying down and waiting for replays to get penalties, and that’s not what we want.
“The Bunker will admit they got it wrong last night. They need to have a bit more discretion about what they think is heavy contact and what’s not.
“It was totally wrong and it wasn’t a good look for the game.”
Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett agreed it shouldn’t have been penalised.
“I didn’t think it should have been a penalty,” Bennett said after the win.
“It looked like there was no intent to hit him in the head. It was just the way he was falling and the way Jesse was coming in.
“I thought he was backing out of it. I didn’t even think he was trying to go through with it.
“There was always going to be contact. We’ve got to realise that sometimes it’s accidental contact, not deliberate contact.”
NRL’s head of football Graham Annesley will no doubt speak about Sutton’s decision before too long.
