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Annesley weighs in on NRL sin bin outrage
Sam Kosack • April 29th, 2025 4:49 pm
NRL Head of Football Graham Annesley says the referees will not back away from tough penalties for high contact, however, the balance of which incidents are sin binned will be improved.
Round 8 of the NRL saw 18 sin bins for high contact, with multiple instances seeing the bunker intervening to remove a player a set after the infringement initially occurred.
The outrage from the round led to NRL CEO Andrew Abdo highlighting changes to how the bunker will be used moving forward, with it to only intervene on more serious incidents, including what it deems a send off.
Graham Annesley has said doesn’t feel last round’s sin bins were incorrectly adjudicated, but finding the balance between sin bin and penalty was a priority for the referees.
“Having reviewed all of the incidents that were sin bins last weekend, there's not too many of them that wouldn't have been sin bins,” Annesley admitted to SEN 1170 Afternoons.
“We did have an exceptional weekend with a number of incidents and there were probably a couple that were missed that weren't sin binned as well that could have been.
“We're not going to back away from contact with the… unnecessary forceful contact with the head and neck of players… but we just need the referees to get that balance right between the incidents that do deserve to go to the bin and those that may have mitigation or perhaps don't reach that bar to turn something from a penalty into a sin bin.
“We just need to spend more time getting that right and hopefully, we'll see that happen this coming weekend and beyond.”
Annesley clarified however, that the heightened use of sin bins for punishing high contact had not changed since the start of the season.
“Going back to round 4… there were a couple of high-profile incidents that should have gone to the sin bin that didn't,” Annesley said.
“And as a result of that, I wrote to clubs with the full support of the NRL chief executive to advise clubs and to advise referees that those incidents that were missed in Round 4 were not a new standard. That the standard that we put in place over the last three years is the existing standard, and we expect that to continue.
“So, that was the only directive that the standard that has been in place now for several years will continue, and we shouldn't see those incidents as a new standard.”
