The Mole: Rival clubs unhappy about Melbourne Storm's Bernard Sutton consultancy
By The Mole - 23 hours ago
Rival NRL clubs are privately unhappy about the recently-formed links between premiers Melbourne and the game's No.1 ranked referee Gerard Sutton.
The Storm employed Sutton's elder brother and former boss, ex-referees supremo Bernard Sutton, as a consultant in January.
I'm not suggesting for one minute that Gerard has a bias towards the Storm because of their association with his brother - the referee is straight as an arrow.
But there are rumblings about what impact this scenario could have, with Bernard having coached Gerard and having an intimate knowledge of all his habits and pet peeves on the field that could theoretically result in penalties.
The NRL themselves are concerned about optics of the link between the brothers. A couple of months ago during the State of Origin series, chief executive Andrew Abdo personally telephoned Bernard Sutton telling him to stand down from helping Queensland after game one, which was refereed by Gerard.
"Bernard trained his little brother and was his boss - he knows how he ticks as a referee and what he is likely to penalise and what he will let go," a rival coach told me.
"What if Gerard referees the grand final and the Storm win - as they did last year - and his brother is now on the coaching staff. We are not saying there is any bias but it is not a good look."
Replies
Sutton Straight as an arrow LOL, no NRL ref is that straight, they're all a bit crooked in some way.
It's a fair concern. How the NRL can't see any potential conflicts of interest here that are concerning enough to step in and investigate astounds me. Even indirectly there's a huge chance this can influence Gerrys refereeing of Melbourne, His brothers job relies on his success in advising Melbourne how to manipulate the referees.