The penalty debate

I agree with Wayne Bennett on this, "if the game blinks, the coaches will be back in control". 

Wayne Bennett has declared he is a fan of referees enforcing the rules and has warned the game that it must not "blink" in the wake of outrage over the spate of penalties blown in the Cronulla Sharks v Melbourne Storm clash on Friday night.

The majority of Bennett's press conference ahead of Sunday night's showdown between the Brisbane Broncos and Gold Coast Titans was taken up discussing the refereeing of games in the opening rounds of the Telstra Premiership with the 33 penalties blown at Southern Cross Group Stadium the major talking point.


Bennett made the point that the rules of the game had not changed, rather the approach to policing them had.

It was a message reinforced recently by NRL CEO Todd Greenberg who said the referees were doing exactly what they had been asked to do with regard to cleaning up the play the ball and making sure players were onside.

"Everyone plays a different style of footy and some teams live on the edge and some teams want to break the rules, and some teams want to get away with as much as they possibly can," Bennett said.

"Other teams are happy to play within the rules but that is not for me and you to decide. That is for the officials to decide, and that is what is happening out there.

"They have made a decision obviously that they are going to clean the play the ball area up and they are going to clean up the 10 metres, and I'm a fan of it because it is going to give us a better game."

Bennett was asked, with reference to the penalty count in the clash at Cronulla, whether referees had gone overboard.

"No, I don't think so," he replied.

"What we are trying to do is give the game back to the fans. That's the way I see it.

"They wouldn't have given those penalties if they weren't deserved. Both teams are trying to get an edge.


"We are in this state at the moment because in the last three or four years there were a lot of things let go that shouldn’t have been let go."

Bennett said it was the coaches of teams that had allowed the situation to get "out of control".

"And we'll get it under control because we are not going to cop 33 penalties," he said.

"It is who blinks now. If the game blinks, the coaches will be back in control. If the game stays strong, we'll have to make sure our players are adhering to the rules.

"That's all [the referees] are doing. They are just enforcing the rules. They haven't made any new ones."

Bennett said he was happy with the clampdown on the areas he mentioned and the sin bin, so long as it was applied to everybody equally.

"But again, the players have got to understand that if this is what they want, you give them what they want and if you don’t, you're going to get yourself in a fair bit of trouble."

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  • The problem is that Matt Chechin is the only referee with the balls and courage to enforce them. The rest of the officials are absolute monkeys
    • Hi FH, I thought that it was terrific to see Smith sin binned. He has conned the refs for years with his antics to slow the game down when the Storm needed it.

  • I admit that the Cronulla/Storm game was not entertaining to watch with 33 penalties interrupting the flow of the game but IMO its hard to argue with what Benny said. I think Joey said a similar thing post match. In hindsight, I was more annoyed with the penalty given in extra time in the Broncs/Tiges match the previous week.

  • The refs, as per almost everyone's observation allowed the game to deteriorate into a sham so now they have got to try and get control back by going the other way.

    Blame the successive Heads of Referees (or whatever title they were given), blame the NRL for sitting on its hands for so long DEFENDING bad referees.

    You really can't blame players and coaches for taking advantage of the ineptitude of the games managers by taking advantage of the situation.

    HOWEVER it is now up to the players and coaches to go back to playing by the rules. 

  • Indications are they're sticking to their guns: 

    https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/blow-that-whistle-ref-nrl-unapolog...

    Blow that whistle, ref: NRL unapologetic over penalty-a-thon
    The spate of penalties won't stop until coaches and players get the message, says the NRL’s head of football, Brian Canavan.
  • I agree with Wayne Bennett and in particular the point that in the last 3 mor 4 years these areas have gotten out of control. I also believe the game will be better off if we enforce the rules around the ruck and the 10mtrs.

    Anything that stops holding up the play the ball with wrestling and slow peeling off will give the fans a better spectacle. Then maybe we can use the 5 minute sin bin for the odd punch or similar other miss adventure, shoulder charge.
  • A general observation, my impression in watching a few AFL games is that their refs/on field officials generally don't seem to influence a games outcome whereas NRL is very sensitive to ref decisions.

    Really frustrating from a fans perspective.

  • What gets me is they always miss the rakes with two refs on the field.
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