This is not to take away from the exceptional Panthers come back to win the game. I also thought the referee did a good job allowing the game to flow. There were however a few questionable things that were let go which 'may have' contributed to the result and they were:
1. Referee letting go possible penalties for high shot and crusher tackle on Broncos players. 'yet' giving 'repeat set of 6' for the 1 ruck infringement to the Panthers which then led to the winning try. Surely a ruck infringement is far less a serious penalty than a possible crusher and high shot. Why didn't the referee let the ruck infringement go and put the whistle away?
2. Referee allowing the Penrith players to be clearly inside the 10 metres.
3. The referee ignoring Penrith players to block Nathan Cleary kicks on the last tackle without penalizing.
This is not a knit picking exercise as the Panthers made an exceptional fight back especially from Nathan Cleary to win the premiership for 3 years in a row breaking a 40 year drought. The errors from the Broncos which were 11 and a poor kicking game from Reynolds clearly contributed to the Broncos loss. Yet, I still can't fathom that the only 6 again was given to Penrith with 5 minutes left which led to the Nathan Cleary winning try was a bit suspicious. Apart from that it was a great grand final.
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I loved the flow of the game but obvious penalties should of been acted upon .one thing that shits me is they won't let normal club games flow the same way .
It appears that the enforcement of the rules differ according to each referee, each team and what game. Consistency would be great
There were a number of forward passes that weren't called either.
Yep, I noticed that there quite a few that were let go and particularly from the Panthers and I say that unbiased. Didn't notice any from Broncos to my knowledge of what I saw.
I loved it. It was a great game, because it was so poorly refereed.
Maybe a looser version of NRL is a better product?
One that stood out for me at a crucial time was the kick that led to the tackle ingoal on Walsh, aka crusher tackle. The kick chaser was well offside, right next to the touch judge and ignored by the video ref on review. For me, there is one thing to let the players decide the game, but blatant ignoring the rules. I've seen no one point that out. Small but the Bronc needed one break with the avalanche of momentum.
I thought the ref did fairly well to let the game flow but in my estimations he erred in letting it flow way too much.
There was definite slowing down of the play the ball by Penrith when the Broncos were looking to finish them off and clear 6 agains that weren't called in order to maintain the games flow. To me these decisions were to the detriment of the Broncos moreso than to that of the Panthers.
The Panthers comeback was monumental, but to be honest, maybe it shouldn't have happened if the bunker and ref had intervened at some crucial moments ie Walsh tackled outside of goal line and many non 6 again calls when the Broncos were storming for 20mins post half time.
Cme on now, blockers haven't been penalised all season, do you really think they would of been pulling them up now.
Martin got a swinging arm to the head by Capwell, which has been a sin bin all year and didn't even get a penalty.
Gee did a great job to allow the game to flow and allow the players to decide the outcome.
Broncos cost themselves the game by switching off once they went up 24-8. This is where Reynolds should of controlled the game by kicking to the corners and slow the game down
It's a much better game without the "6 again Ref interpretation " rule which is a total farce in my opinion