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Calls grow for return of NRL referee briefing as coaches left confused over rules
Sam Kosack • March 24th, 2025 5:19 pm
SEN’s Matt White has called for the return of the weekly referee’s briefing after a number of decisions from Round 3 left fans and coaches scratching their heads.
Questions were raised by Ricky Stuart and Wayne Bennett surrounding six agains and hip-drop tackles respectively, with the former slamming NRL CEO Andrew Abdo after his team’s loss yesterday to the Sea Eagles.
Stuart’s Raiders were on the wrong end of a 10-4 penalty count and conceded 7 six agains, leading the Canberra coach to remark in his post-match conference that “it’s really difficult coaching when you don’t know the rules, you don’t know interpretations because I’ve got no idea”.
Matt White thinks Graham Annesley’s weekly briefing explaining controversial referee decisions needs to return in order to clear up confusions amongst fans and coaches.
“Is it time to bring back the briefing? I think maybe so,” White said on SEN 1170 Mornings.
“If not to make sense of 6 agains for Ricky Stuart and others. If not to make sense of hip drops for Wayne Bennett and others, if not to make sense of impersonating a referee for the benefit of Josh Curran and others, then at least to understand how topsy turvy this season is looking after just three rounds.
“Now, of course the briefings were kiboshed for this year unless something big needed explaining… some would say today is that day that if you need a few things need to be explained by NRL headquarters because the blowtorch has been well and truly turned back on Andrew Abdo.
“I was all for the kiboshing of the briefing, I like what Graham Annesley did but sometimes it was digging a hole for itself in the NRL.
“Ricky Stuart was very clever in the way that he did it, but the blowtorch goes back to the CEO on this one… it’s an interesting scenario.”
Bulldogs’ coach Cameron Ciraldo confirmed he would seek an explanation from the NRL over a unique “spirit of the game” penalty given against prop Josh Curran, while Souths’ coach Wayne Bennett raised confusion around the ruling on hip drop tackles after an incident in the Rabbitohs v Sharks clash on Saturday.
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