Graham Annesley, the head of football for the NRL, asserted that referee Ashley Klein saw a forward pass during Friday night’s qualifying final between the Sydney Roosters and the Penrith Panthers more clearly than television cameras.
The Roosters were blown out of the game in the first half, but they scored two tries just after the break and appeared to have a third that would have trimmed the advantage to as little as eight points.
But referee Klein called a pass as forward even though replays showed it was totally OK.
The Roosters’ momentum and hopes of a comeback were stifled by the call, with Trent Robinson stating at his press conference after the game that Klein was the only one who thought the pass went forward.
“No, that wasn’t forward in my opinion. Except for the referee, I don’t think anyone thought that was forward. In his post-game news conference, Robinson was questioned specifically about the try. “Even looking at the replays and the angle of the pass, that’s a big call in that moment, and you can’t get that wrong,” Robinson replied.
The guy who had received the pass, Captain James Tedesco, added that it appeared the ball had never been forward.
It didn’t seem forward to me. I didn’t think it was forward, but we definitely would have scored off the back of it and the game would have been different,” Tedesco remarked.
Speaking on Monday afternoon at his monthly football briefing, however, Annesley took a different tack, saying that even if the throw appeared to be backwards on replay, Klein was in a better position to observe it than the TV cameras.
“I can’t even begin to count how many times this year, forward or back, I have been asked about passes,” Annesley remarked on Monday.
“I believe that specific decision is not obviously a forward pass when viewed from the broadcast perspective.
From a broadcast standpoint, one could actually contend that it appears to be a passable pass.
But there, right there, is the referee. He bases his innate assessment on what he observes. He responds right away. He’s in a favourable situation.
The NRL has long discussed the use of technology in calling forward passes, but according to Annesley, the referee is still the best person to make the call.
Annesley remarked, “We can argue the point about forward passes.”
There were undoubtedly more passes in any of the four games, involving any of the participating teams, that one could make an argument against.
Thus, I’m not attempting to evade responding to you. It simply comes down to whether or not it was forward. It doesn’t appear forward from the camera viewpoint, really.
“However, would it reveal anything different if we could—which we can’t—have a camera and a drone floating precisely over that to give you the precise perspective? I’m not sure.
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