The NRL has responded following the shocking forward pass debacle during the Broncos’ preliminary final win against the Warriors.
With the game in the balance 15 minutes into the second half and Brisbane leading 24-12, Reece Walsh produced an “absolute howler” of a forward pass to winger Selwyn Cobbo, whose similarly questionable pass to Jordan Riki sent Brisbane through for a try.
Unfortunately for the Warriors, the forward pass was missed by the match officials and, to make matters worse, the try was awarded because for the past 20 years the bunker has been prohibited from ruling on forward passes.
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The NRL has previously ruled out implementing new technology to help rule on passes, such as microchips in footballs, due to the cost involved.
However, the governing body is considering changing the rules to allow the Bunker to adjudicate on forward passes.
“We should look at it, absolutely. Any help we can give the referees we should,” Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V’landys told News Corp.
“I have the greatest admiration for the job all of our referees do. But any assistance we can give them to relieve some of the pressure would be commonsense.
“We’ll look at it during the off-season in our general review. If it’s forward out of the hands you can see that from the bunker.”
V’landys defended referee Gerard Sutton for his performance during the incident and the match.
“Anyone can make a mistake in a pressure environment,” V’landys said.
“It’s such a pressure cooker job. They have hundreds of thousands of eyeballs watching every decision.
“I make mistakes in life with no pressure. Everyone makes mistakes every day.
“The refs make one and everyone wants to come down on them.”
Speaking after the match, Warriors coach Andrew Webster refused to blame the controversial moment for his side’s loss.
“It is pretty clear to say the forward pass was so wrong it wasn’t funny,” Webster said.
“But they (Brisbane) made a line break, we’d allowed the line break, and then the forward pass comes off the back of that.
“We weren’t defending well in that period, the forward pass was wrong. But we’re not crying over that. It certainly didn’t cost us the game.
“We’ve got to give ourselves an opportunity to win and we have to take the referees out of it.
“The boys are trying hard and get frustrated by decisions. But at the end of the day we have to take some ownership of what we have to do better.”
Speaking during commentary, rugby league great Mick Ennis was left stunned and surprised by the call to play on.
“This might sound ridiculous but this is the speed of Reece Walsh that the actual touch judge couldn’t keep up with him, this was two metres forward, blatantly forward,” Ennis said on Fox League.
“The touch judge fell two or three metres off the pace, he just couldn’t keep himself in line with Walsh and it’s an absolute howler.
“I know we can’t use the Bunker but there’s three officials there and the ball blatantly goes forward.”
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