NRL’s latest bunker dramas were line-ball. Will the grand final be so lucky?

“Someone riding a skateboard out the front could do a better job at the moment. Our game is going crazy.”

Say what you want about the nation’s faith in Canberra, but flabbergasted Raiders NRLW coach Darrin Borthwick seems to have tapped into the prevailing public sentiment towards the NRL bunker.

Borthwick was lamenting a critical no-try call against Canberra’s Lili Boyle in Saturday’s 10-point grand final qualifier loss to the all-conquering Roosters, 24 hours after Ashley Klein once again garnered more spotlight than any referee – either on the paddock or in the Eveleigh Street command centre – would ever want.

The NRL has yet to conduct its official review of the Roosters’ 36-20 rumbling of the Dolphins at Suncorp Stadium on Friday night.

It came with two more divisive calls in a finals series full of them – with on-field official Adam Gee ruling Jamayne Isaako planted the ball inside the sideline, and that Mark Nawaqanitawase had thrown a ball back inside before his boot slid into touch.

That the NRL did not call an emergency football department meeting, and hasn’t offered any public comment, reiterates what sources privately indicated to this masthead after full-time. Both calls were considered line-ball. And given both were referred upstairs as tries by Gee, Klein is not considered to have had enough evidence to overturn them. Though, again, this is before the NRL’s full review takes place.

As for Nawaqanitawase’s pass travelling forward? Well, forward passes are not in the bunker’s remit and won’t be any time soon.

So there was no intervention when Dane Gagai shovelled the ball forward to Dominic Young for his life-giving four-pointer on Sunday afternoon, even if the bunker correctly ruled his grounding was sound.

Video referee Chris Butler had insufficient evidence to overturn the on-field “no try” ruling against Casey McLean too when the Knights denied him a late surge at the line by the barest of margins.

For all the sentiment out of the NRL though, and Peter V’landys’ all-too ready, weekly claim that the bunker gets 98 per cent of decisions correct, the comments of Borthwick resonate with plenty of fans.

So too, the concerns of James Tedesco at the NRL’s finals launch that a big game could be decided by ambiguous, unexplained set restarts. Or Immortal Andrew Johns’ fears that heavy-handed refereeing will swing an Origin contest rather than the players.

Talk to punters on the street or at the pub, and it’s the bunker and six agains – and how they impact their team – that they care most about.

Significantly more than any stake the NRL claims in the Super League, or Japan, or wherever else V’landys throws a dart at in his plans for world domination.

After Wayne Bennett and South Sydney hit the roof following their week-one finals exit and Klein’s axing in the wake of his last-minute Eden Park mishap, the feeling exists across the game. As much as the NRL doesn’t want it to. How much influence will the officials, be they on the ground or in the box, have on the grand final?

To V’landys credit, The Sun-Herald brought news that a seemingly a nailed-on desire to introduce his new kick-off rule in 2027 has apparently been wound back.

“We will meet with the coaches and players and go through it,” V’landys said. “At this stage, there is no intention to change a rule.”

The same pages brought a promise from the newly minted ARL Commission executive chairman to stick to his guns on this year’s expanded six again remit.

As V’landys settles into his new throne, however, his words from his first day as regular old ARLC chairman on October 31, 2019 have a real ring to them seven years on.

“To be frank, we need to improve our refereeing,” V’landys said. “That’s the biggest single problem at the moment. Being from the racing industry, there’s one thing that I’ve learnt, it’s that punters or fans don’t like to be ripped off. You can’t have them walk away thinking that they’ve been ripped off.”

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