Stephen Crichton charged, escaped sin bin for RTS high shot, NRL Bunker inconsistencies, Bulldogs v Warriors, Round 25 #adessonews

The Bunker has come under fire for inconsistencies in sending players to the sin bin for contact with the head, with one NRL great declaring players “deserve better.”

Just 24 hours after three Manly Sea Eagles found themselves in the sin bin during their loss to the Tigers, the Bunker failed to send Bulldogs skipper Stephen Crichton to the sin bin after he made direct contact with the head of Warriors centre Roger Tuivasa-Sheck.

Speaking post-game, Fox League’s James Graham described the decision as “mind boggling,” with his former teammate Michael Ennis slamming the Bunker for their inconsistency.

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“It’s the inconsistencies. It’s not the on ground officials. It’s the Bunker. And there’s a real frustration in our game between players, coaches and it’s rife with our fans at the moment with the inconsistency,” Ennis said.

“Stephen Crichton, direct contact to the head of Tuivasa-Sheck, who has to leave the field, who will miss next week. Yet, Stephen Crichton stays on the field when many times throughout the season we’ve seen that 10 minutes in the sin bin.”

Graham agreed, noting “everybody accepts that Stephen Crichton leaves the game for 10 minutes. Everybody, even Bulldogs fans, have no qualms about Stephen Crichton going to the bin for 10 minutes there.”

Except Crichton remained on the field following the 45th minute incident, with referee Wyatt Raymond noting there were mitigating factors ensuring the game remained 13 on 13.

However, Fox League’s post-game panel was not buying the existence of mitigating circumstances, particularly the Bunker’s ability to determine them.

“How can someone sitting in a room in Sydney determine the force of a tackle in New Zealand?” Ennis asked.

“There’s no mitigating factors,” Graham added.

“Stephen Crichton hits Roger Tuivasa-Sheck in the head. Roger Tuivasa-Sheck stands, stumbles, falls over, can’t come back on and we’ve seen not too dissimilar instances that have resulted in a sin bin,” he said.

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Crichton is now facing a one game ban for the incident, further adding to the disbelief around the Bunker’s failure to send him for the sin bin.

League legend Greg Alexander admitted he wasn’t “convinced” that Crichton deserved to go to the sin bin, but agreed on the balance of decisions seen this year the Bulldogs skipper was lucky to remain on the field.

“Dylan Walker got sin binned a couple of weeks ago and there were mitigating circumstances. He stood there as, I think it was Mark Nicholls, fell into his shoulder and he was tackled by someone around the legs,” Alexander said.

Ennis agreed, stating; “It might not be (a sin bin) but based on what you see when you look at the tackle but when you look at other incidents this year (it is).”

The ordeal led the panel to offer a wider criticism of the current state of NRL refereeing, with Graham insisting “we’re completely lost” when it comes to what’s a penalty and what isn’t.

“We are so overreactive. Some of the penalties are outrageous,” Alexander said.

Graham believes the Bunker’s ability to intervene with refereeing decisions during the game is to the NRL’s detriment.

“Sometimes the referees do react, sometimes they don’t, sometimes the Bunker intervenes, sometimes they don’t,” he said.

He believes the inconsistencies with calls, and constant intervention with refereeing decisions creates an “environment where players play that game of cat and mouse” and milk contact that would’ve otherwise gone unnoticed by the on field officials to their team’s advantage.

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Graham drew attention to two incidents that saw Bulldogs prop Max King placed on report and penalised during his side’s Round 25 win over the Warriors.

Both times King was penalised for high contact that Graham feels wouldn’t have been addressed if not for players staying down and waiting for the call.

“It’s a complete guessing game,” he said.

“But for me if you’re a player, and I want to take head contact seriously, and you stay down – you have to come off. If you’re going to play for the penalty and lie down you’ve got to go.”

Graham believes the Bunker should only be allowed to intervene for sin bin and send off offences.

“It should be allowed for the referee to make a judgement call,” he said.

“If it’s high contact and it’s aggressive. He’s not slowing it down and looking at it from different angles. It’s at game pace. If the referee sees a penalty, blow the whistle.

“If the Bunker intervenes it is for a sin bin only.

“I don’t understand how the Bunker can come in over the top because players have stayed down.”

Ennis agreed more responsibility should lie with the on field referee to dictate what is and isn’t a penalty, reminding the panel of how well received the game’s officiating was earlier in the season.

“We tried to speed up the game with the set restarts and now all of a sudden we’ve got games where there are multiple restarts, now we’ve added this logjam of penalties,” he said.

“You go back to the feedback from everyone that went to Las Vegas in Round Zero, (they) spoke about the quality of the product and watching the game and the referees allowed it to flow.

“The game flowed, it was brilliant. And the players dictate the result.”

However, Ennis feels the game has deviated from the precedent set in Sin City, a position Alexander shared.

“We are stopping the game constantly for things that should not be stopped,” Alexander said.

“We are jumping at anything that’s around the shoulders.”

Graham added his belief the NRL must improve its officiating consistency over the final rounds of the season not just for the sake of the fans.

“We get frustrated because we’re fans of the game. We know what it takes to get yourself in a position to try and win a premiership… they (players) deserve better than the inconsistencies.”