NRL head of football Graham Annesley has defended Roosters young gun Sam Walker’s match-winning field-goal despite concerns the Tricolours deployed an illegal wall during the play.
With less than three minutes remaining during the Roosters’ elimination final over the Titans last weekend, Walker knocked through the game-deciding field-goal that handed his side a one-point win.
Immediately after the game, concerns were raised over whether Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Victor Radley formed an illegal wall to block Titans players, namely Mitch Rein who was at marker, from putting pressure on the field goal attempt.
Under the laws of the game, “If two or more players form a wall (side by side) next to the play the ball and don’t allow the opportunity for a defending player to move directly towards the player in possession, the referee will penalise for obstruction.”
Annesley said despite the side by side efforts of Waerea-Hargreaves and Victor Radley, Rein wasn’t blocked or denied an attempt to put pressure on Walker.
“The real issue is whether those players actually prevent an opposition player or defender from moving toward the play in possession,” he said.
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“We saw looking at Mitch Rein that he got through and he was able to put pressure on the kicker.”
The NRL’s football boss then went on to explain that the incident wasn’t the only time this season where a similar action has been deployed.
Speaking to reporters regarding the matter, Annesley played a number of similar moments throughout the season to confirm the NRL is fine with players forming a wall, so long as it doesn’t impede the opposing team’s effort to put pressure on the field goal attempt.
“We tend to look at incidents sometimes in isolation and not look at how they’ve been dealt with over the course of the year,” Annesley added.
“We’re not going to change the rules that we’ve been playing under all year just because we’re in the finals series.
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“This is a mechanism that has been used by clubs right throughout the course of the season… The real determining factor here is whether those players, who take up that position, actually physically interfere with any chasers or not, and prevent them from chasing the ball.”
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