NRL head of football Graham Annesley has instructed bunker officials to use their discretion when ruling on contentious collisions after a pair of incidents over the weekend.
A penalty for a high tackle on Tom Trbojevic and the decision to send Harry Grant to the sin bin were the major talking points from round 10, with Annesley conceding the decision to penalise Dolphins forward Jesse Bromwich was incorrect.
Grant was later hit with a Grade One Dangerous Contact charge for the contact on Cronulla’s Daniel Atkinson while he was kicking, which he will contest at the judiciary on Tuesday night.
Annesley was unable to comment on the incident during his weekly football briefing due to it being a live judiciary matter but clarified that there has been no directive from head office for a crackdown on contact with kickers.
‘There has been no directive given to match officials or the match review committee about any supposed crackdown on incidents like that,’ Annesley said.
‘That is purely a discretionary matter for the referees and bunker to use their judgment in determining what action should be taken in any incident of alleged foul play.’
Annesley also discussed the process that led to a successful captain’s challenge by Manly in their loss to the Dolphins on Thursday. The Sea Eagles called for a review after Tom Trbojevic made an error while attempting to play the ball, claiming Bromwich had made high contact during the tackle. The bunker agreed and awarded Manly a penalty.
Annesley conceded there was contact with Trbojevic’s head but declared it was not sufficient to warrant a penalty, and the original decision should have been upheld. Moving forward, referees and bunker officials have been instructed to consider the force of the contact when ruling on challenges for high tackles.
‘By any reasonable assessment of that contact, I don’t believe that most people would think that is sufficient to uphold the decision of high contact,’ Annesley said.
‘What we have done since this incident is that all bunker officials have been reminded that for a decision like this to be upheld, there has to be some degree of force involved in the tackle. This was insignificant and incidental. As a result, the challenge should not have been upheld.’
Trbojevic’s night ended shortly after his successful challenge, with the fullback limping from the field due to a hamstring injury. It was one of several soft tissue injuries over the weekend, with Nathan Cleary also injuring his hamstring and Nicho Hynes missing Cronulla’s win over Melbourne with calf tightness.
Annesley said this is not uncommon and pointed to data across sports, revealing hamstring injuries are among the top three injuries in the AFL, NFL, and English Premier League. He did, however, acknowledge an increase in hamstring injuries this year and said NRL officials will be watching closely throughout the remainder of the season.
