‘A clear sin bin’: NRL sends warning to clubs after a weekend where four acts of foul play weren’t properly dealt with

NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo concedes the officials missed four clear occasions when they should have sent players to the sin bin in round 4, with head office putting all 17 clubs on notice this week that direct and forceful contact to the head will not be tolerated. Head of football Graham Annesley emailed the clubs on Monday and wrote that the officials had fallen short of policy that has been in place for a number of years. Jarome Luai, Tom Gilbert, Jordan Riki and Reed Mahoney were all charged by the match review committee but didn’t spend time off the field on the weekend for tackles that would ordinarily result in a sin bin. Annesley warned clubs that the lack of action wasn’t a precedent and that teams should be prepared for tougher penalties if similar tackles are performed going forward. Speaking on NRL 360 on Monday night, Abdo described the lack of conviction from the Bunker and referees as “unfortunate”, with speculation we could now see an overreaction like we did at Magic Round in 2021. The proof will be in the pudding this weekend, with calls for greater transparency from the NRL following the decision to get rid of Annesley’s weekly briefing, while coaches have also been gagged at post-match press conferences. A number of coaches dipped their toe in the water but didn’t give their full view on contentious calls in round four, including Panthers boss Ivan Cleary who was surprised prop forward Moses Leota was denied what appeared to be a try. “I think it’s important to acknowledge that referees do a great job and get 98 per cent of decisions right,” Abdo said. “Then there are going to be some calls that are 50-50 and debated. You guys were debating them earlier in the show like the Leota one – was it a try or was it not a try? “You looked at it nine or 10 times (and couldn’t agree) and you’re always going to get that in professional sport. “And then there are calls that are just wrong, and over the weekend we identified direct, forceful contact to the head with no mitigation, and that’s a clear sin bin. “You’ll see high tackles that will be penalised or there might be some mitigation, but the referees know what the decision tree looks like. “When we saw shoulders directly to the head with no mitigation and the player wasn’t falling, that was a clear sin bin. We saw about four of those in this round (not sent to the sin bin) which was unfortunate.”