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Sport Nation
Parker: Diabolical ref howlers are an embarrassment
Corey Parker • May 19th, 2025 11:26 am
It pains me to do this again but I’m going at the referees of the NRL.
I try and tell myself over the course of the weekend not going to do this. I'm not going to go there and then I just get given absolutely no opportunity but to go there.
The Dolphins were up against the Warriors at Suncorp Stadium in front of 30,000 people. Terrific game, wonderful conditions, both teams having a red hot crack at each other and then this absolute howler of a call. A howler of a call.
The kick goes up, Roger Tuivasa-Sheck drops it clean, drops it in front of himself and another Warrior picks it up so he's in an offside position.
So not only is it a penalty, it's also a clean and blatant knock-on.
Tuivasa-Sheck gives himself up and then he couldn't believe his luck when referee Peter Gough does nothing about it; nothing to see here, play on.
It was the worst knock-on call I have seen in recent time. Then the very next set Kurt Capewell scores a try down the right-hand corner.
The fact that it was allowed to continue move forward after such an obvious knock-on, I still don't understand.
In that instance if a player's thinking on their feet and they're smart enough what needed to happen was, whoever was making the tackle has to hold on to that tackle, make sure there's a stoppage in play, give away a penalty, then they have to challenge it.
This is where you don't want the game to get to but if they were smart enough and quick enough to react, that's what they needed to do.
Then there was Sunday afternoon. Ezra Mam returns for the Broncos, the first try that he laid on for Gehamat Shibasaki. Beautiful play. Unfortunately, execution, completely wrong.
Forward pass, like I'm talking not just marginal, it's forward out of the hands, goes forward to Shibasaki. Referee misses it, the touch judge right there and Kasey Badger right in line with the play, nothing to see here, play on try.
I understand referees are human and they will make mistakes, but these are mistakes that are unacceptable.
That one from Peter Gough, unacceptable.
But then we want to see coaches and captains sit there in the press conference after the game, and you want hear their honesty, you want to hear their emotions.
The coaches must go there, the captains have to go there and answer these questions but we get the same old jargon rolled out from a coach and captain because the NRL jumps all over you if have anything negative to say.
Yet, you have these diabolical decisions and they have ramifications.
The one on the weekend for the Dolphins, they lose by four points. They shouldn't have been in that position and it's huge to deal with. Some coaches lose their jobs. Some people lose their livelihoods based on these decisions.
I'll say again, the referees are human, they will make mistakes, but those blatant howlers are not acceptable.
If that was a Grand Final the game would be in tatters. It would be up in arms. Absolutely not acceptable whatsoever if that's how the grand final was decided.
I’ve got no doubt that in a Grand Final bunker someone of a higher place would have come through on the years and said, that is a knock on, you got it completely wrong.
Why not do it in Round 11 at Suncorp Stadium?
It’s diabolical and something should have been done about it.
