‘Unbelievable’ twist in Ponga field goal drama as Bunker ‘con job’ comes under fire

While the debate continues to rage about blockers, it’s been highlighted that Kalyn Ponga actually missed his field goal attempt in the Knights’ Golden Point loss to the Sharks.

There’s been a lot made of referee Gerard Sutton’s decision to penalise the Knights and Sharks for using ‘blockers’ during field goal attempts.

Coaches Adam O’Brien and Craig Citzgibbon, along with many pundits in the game, agree the penalties were unnecessary. However the NRL’s head of football Graham Annesley declared on Tuesday that Sutton got it right.

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But as highlighted on NRL 360, there’s something that’s gone missing among all the blocking drama — the fact that Ponga’s kick wasn’t successful regardless of whether there were blockers or not.

“I find this unbelievable,” News Corp journalist Dave Riccio said on NRL 360.

“Given the amount of information we receive from match officials, during the game we’re able to hear the video referee Bunker.

“How the match officials at any point in this — because Kalyn Ponga goes on to captain’s challenge (Will Kennedy being off-side) — at no point did they indicate that there was no field goal.

“I firmly believe that several Knights players were of the opinion it went through hence the captain’s challenge anyway. I can’t believe it.”

Ponga’s field goal attempt ultimately did not get the green light during Sunday’s game because the Knights were penalised for using ‘blockers’.

The star fullback opted to use his captain’s challenge to dispute Sutton’s decision — and to check that all of Cronulla’s players were on-side.

The replay revealed that Kennedy was actually off-side, but the Bunker ruled that Kennedy was obstructed by the ‘blocker’ Mat Croker.

In Monday’s briefing, Annesley conceded that Kennedy may have been “one step” off-side but added “the Bunker cannot rule on that.”

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That has drawn attention to another deficiency in the use of the Bunker.

As O’Brien highlighted in his press conference on Tuesday, in Thursday’s clash between the Storm and Panthers, the Bunker was able to be used to determine Jack Howarth was in front of Ryan Papenhuyzen when he attempted to kick a 40/20 off a quick tap.

“Referees have a bloody tough job to do, it’s a fast game and they’ve got to see a lot,” O’Brien said.

“The rules were used in the nth degree with blockers but they weren’t used in the nth degree in probably the oldest rule in the book — about being on-side.

“I don’t blame the referees or touch judges, as I said they’ve got a lot to look at. We’ve got to blame the system.

“I think there’s technology there that we can use and it was used on Thursday night to catch someone was off side at a tap.

“But we can’t use it — and Kalyn asked for it to be checked, the on-side — in a golden point situation so that’s a flawed system that probably needs looking at.”

It comes as retired NRL great James Graham revealed the Bunker didn’t even pick up on Howarth being off-side at first.

“The referee in the Bunker didn’t know that this had happened,” he said on NRL 360.

“It was actually the Panthers players that went to the referee and said ‘he’s off-side’ and the referee went away and said ‘hold on, check Howarth’

“It was the Penrith players that alerted the referee to tell the person in the Bunker to check for this.”

Veteran journalist Paul Crawley said O’Brien was “100 per cent correct” and questioned why the Bunker can’t be used in both situations.

“Every time a kick goes up, and if it’s in a tryscoring situation, nearly the first thing the Bunker says is ‘chase is cleared.’ They can tell if a player is off-side,” he said.

“Yet in the instance of Will Kennedy on the weekend, the Bunker’s not allowed to rule on that.

“It makes no sense at all why they can call off-side from a kick, but not off-side from a team running up. It’s crazy.”

Riccio, however, gave insight into why the Bunker can’t be used in the Kennedy situation.

“It’s argued that the camera position at stadiums is at the centre of the field and therefore the camera angle can’t carry a line across 100 metres of the football field,” he said.

But rugby league legend Gorden Tallis wasn’t buying it.

“That’s common selse rule — that (Kennedy off-side) doesn’t pass the pub test,” he said.

“I get forward passes, that’s hard to rule because the camera is not beside it but looking at (Kennedy) is he in front of the referee?”

Crawley agreed.

“That’s a con job because there’s a line every 10 metres on the field and if you can’t work out if he’s on side or off side you’re kidding yourself,” he said.

Riccio responded: “This is why the technology was invented, this is why we brought the bunker in, to help the human error. They have time to look at this replay through the technology.”

But NRL 360 host Braith Anasta also put the blowtorch on the officials.

“Do you know what else there is? Touch judges so they’ve got to be held accountable,” he said.