Ref made right call in denying field goals but blocker rule’s wrong as Annesley tells O’Brien to ‘suffer the consequences’

NRL head of football Graham Annesley has fired back at Knights coach Adam O’Brien over the controversial blocker penalties at the end of their golden-point loss to Cronulla. 

O’Brien said he disagreed with referee Gerard Sutton’s decisions to disallow match-winning field goal attempts by Kalyn Ponga and Daniel Atkinson in regulation time and sarcastically added that Annesley would “find a way to dress it up”.

Annesley was as fired up as the mild mannered ex-politician gets at his Monday afternoon media briefing by hitting back at O’Brien, saying all clubs were warned that blocking for field goals would no longer be tolerated this year.

“It’s absolutely consistent. It went both ways, both for the same action, both with blockers between the ruck and the kicker and if that’s dressing it up, I’ll cop it on the chin,” he said.

“It’s factual, it’s the rules of the game and players and coaches have to abide by those rules or suffer the consequences.

“I’ve said on multiple occasions throughout the course of the year – if you do not want to take the risk of having field goals disallowed, don’t put these players in this (blocking) position. You’re inviting the referee to take the action.

“Obstruction. Blockers. Case closed.”

All clubs were sent the laws and interpretations in the pre-season with videos produced to explain what would and would not be tolerated.

Meetings were held with coaches and referees went to training sessions to give teams a practical example of how the rule would be applied.

The clubs were told: “A penalty may be awarded if a player(s) takes up a position near the play-the-ball … (or) stands in the defensive line, or in front of the play-the-ball, and in the opinion of the referee, obstructs a defender(s), regardless of whether there is physical contact.”

As is often the case when the NRL officials decide whether they have done the right thing, they have given themselves a pat on the back. 

There’s a reason why teachers mark assignments and don’t get students to give themselves a grade.

Annesley and Sutton are technically right in this instance – both Newcastle and Cronulla caused minor obstacles to defenders trying to charge down a field goal attempt and the way the rule is now written and interpreted, a penalty could be blown. 

But should it have been on either occasion? No. 

In the first one, when Ponga drops the ball onto his left boot to break the 18-18 deadlock with three minutes to go, Sharks fullback Will Kennedy races towards him and has to take the slightest of detours because forward Mat Croker had shaped up to take the pass from dummy-half but the ball went out the back to the fullback. 

Up until last year, when teams were setting up for a field goal, they would have blockers who would stand in line with the dummy-half who could not even be passed the ball because it would travel forward. 

This was the precursor to the rule change because they were basically NFL linebackers at the line of scrimmage rather than rugby league players awaiting a pass from a teammate.

Croker and fellow forward Adam Elliott were both a metre or two behind Jayden Brailey when he picked the ball up from the back of the ruck, took a couple of steps forward and did not divert from their decoy running line to deliberately impede any Sharks defenders.

Kennedy’s run from 10 metres back was pretty much arrow straight at Ponga’s left boot but Sutton, and the Bunker, said he had been forced to change his path so that’s why he nullified Newcastle’s one-pointer. 

Atkinson’s field goal attempt up the other end a couple of minutes later was a carbon copy. 

Ponga wisely ran at Royce Hunt after he and Cameron McInnes also shaped to get the ball one pass off the ruck but wandered forward after the ball was passed behind them. 

What the NRL is now saying is that teams can’t have anyone in front of the kicker when a field goal is attempted – they basically have to create a gap in their attacking formation so that the defensive team has free rein to charge towards the player assigned the already difficult task of executing the kick.

This is not the case at any other point in a match.

When a clearing kick is placed downfield, the players primarily position themselves behind teammates who are nothing more than decoys to create clean space for them to operate. 

The NRL has cracked down on the age-old practice of the “downtown” in recent seasons where players try to get a head start by setting off upfield before the ball clears the ruck.

When it comes to field goals, the same theory should apply.

If a player is running a normal rugby league shape of potentially getting a pass from dummy half, they should be allowed to do that if a teammate behind them kicks a field goal, which was the case with Ponga and Atkinson.

Just as the rules apply to try-scoring plays, as long as the decoy runner goes through the line or does not collide with an opponent, they are doing nothing wrong. 

This is pretty much what Sharks prop Oregon Kaufusi did when he was the only teammate in the vicinity when Atkinson struck the winning field goal in extra time.

One way for teams to get around this interpretation of the law will be for the field goal kicker to stand directly behind the ruck, as far back as possible, because the tackled player and the dummy-half cannot be considered blockers. 

Sunday’s thrilling finish to what was an otherwise dull match was great theatre and unsurprisingly, the NRL has thoroughly investigated the NRL official who came up with these calls which decided the NRL match and found that the NRL followed the NRL rulebook. 

Any other verdict was Never Really Likely.