League legends have doubled down on their criticism of the NRL Bunker following a baffling moment during round 11.
It came in the first game of the round, and proved mightily costly for Newcastle and undoubtedly helped Brisbane to a comprehensive victory.
The Bunker cleared a straight-forward obstruction which impeded Knights defender Adam Clune, and allowed the Broncos to spread the ball right to Selwyn Cobbo who sprinted away to score a try.
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Knights captain Kalyn Ponga and coach Adam O’Brien were rightly baffled by the explanation that came from the officials.
On Saturday, NRL head of football Graham Annesley defended the Bunker’s call and said it could have fallen either way.
Knights legend Andrew Johns was livid during the game, and even moreso when told of Annesley’s response.
“I just laughed. That’s all I’m doing… that is laughable,” Johns told Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.
Johns was equally bemused at an earlier Bunker call, where a Dane Gagai try was overturned because slow-motion replays allegedly showed separation for a millisecond between his hand and the ball.
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“The Bunker should have two looks at it in real time, not super super slow-mo. Watch it in real time, watch it twice, if it looks like a try, award the try,” Johns said on Sunday.
“It takes up so much time. The Bunker was brought in to stop the howler, and now the Bunker is creating the howler.”
Fellow legend Brad Fittler agrees the Bunker is wasting too much time during games.
He was also dumfounded at the non-obstruction call that went against the Knights, but also saw an incident the following night that left him perplexed.
The Bunker awarded a penalty against Manly, to Parramatta, but it was the amount of time taken that baffled Fittler.
“It was early in the game and it took two minutes 20 (seconds)… you could tell in 10 seconds (it was a penalty),” Fittler told the Footy Show.
“The reason for the Bunker is so he can be viewing stuff while the referee is settling things down in the game, getting control of the game. Ten seconds (it should’ve taken)… that’s killing the game, it’s killing the rhythm of the game and the fatigue of the game.
“The game is about fatigue. The best teams handle fatigue better, and that is the difference. Two minutes 20, I was asleep.”
While Slater didn’t disagree with Johns’ idea to improve the Bunker, he believes Thursday’s error would not have been solved by a different system.
He says Bunker official Grant Atkins simply got the call wrong.
“It was wrong on the night, and that explanation (from Annesley) is wrong,” Slater said.
“That’s an obstruction. It obstructed his view, it obstructed him from going to make the tackle. It affected the play.
“It’s an obstruction. You can’t obstruct a defender.”
Annesley will speak at his weekly press conference on Monday.
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