‘Bit of a mess’: Fears controversial blocking calls have unlocked ‘flaw’ NRL teams will exploit

There are fears the controversial blocking calls in the Knights golden point loss to the Sharks have identified a “big flaw” in the NRL’s officiating system ahead of the finals.

Both Newcastle and Cronulla had late field goals ruled out after players from both sides were deemed to have been blocking opponents attempting to contest the shot.

Adam O’Brien and Craig Fitzgibbon both shared post-game they believed the field goals to be valid and legal, although NRL head of football Graham Annesley ruled on Monday referee Gerard Sutton made the correct decision.

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However, speaking on Monday night’s NRL 360, host Braith Anasta disagreed with Annesley’s position, labelling the decision as “dubious” before explaining why he felt Kalyn Ponga’s late field goal should have stood.

“You can see there those two forwards there are deemed as blockers and getting in the way of (Will) Kennedy. I don’t know where they’re supposed to go,” Anasta said.

“They haven’t deviated their line.”

However, even more concerning for Anasta was the decision moments later to disallow a Sharks field goal for a similar blocking infringement, with the former Blues representative believing Sutton’s decision has set a dangerous precedent that players may milk when future games are on the line.

“He had to give this penalty (for blocking before Atkinson’s field goal). I believe the referee has dug himself into a hole,” he said.

“You can see Kalyn plays for it, because why wouldn’t you?

“That’s what we’re going to get now because of this.

“(It’s an) identical situation and the Newcastle players play up to it and they have to disallow it because they played up to it before.

“(We’ve) really got us in a bit of a mess here.”

Veteran journalist Phil Rothfield agreed the blockers didn’t obstruct Will Kennedy, adding; “I don’t want to see a grand final or a major final decided by a blocker when it’s so inconclusive.”

However, more than the potential impacts of the controversial blocking calls in the closing weeks of the season, The Daily Telegraph’s Brent Read believes the Ponga disallowed field goal identified a “bigger flaw” with the NRL’s officiating system.

“Graham (Annesley) basically conceded that there was a chance Will Kennedy was offside but they couldn’t review that because the video official doesn’t have the power in this situation to review offside,” Read explained.

“It’s opened up a bigger flaw in the system because what if we get to a game and there’s a guy clearly offside and we’ve got to review it and the video ref can’t give a penalty for it?

It’s shown us a flaw in the system that needs to be looked at.”