Bury the bunker, says veteran coach

Wayne Bennett says he empathises with NRL coaches who were fined for blasting referees and believes the bunker should be scrapped.

NRL boss Todd Greenberg was forced to front a press conference this week and told coaches to ‘‘grow up’’ after Cronulla’s Shane Flanagan and Manly’s Trent Barrett were fined a total of A$50,000 ($55,000) for venting on referees as their teams bowed out of the finals.

But Bennett could feel for his fellow coaches ahead of Brisbane’s knockout NRL semifinal against Penrith.

‘‘It’s a difficult one. It is pretty unfair on the coaches because their season is finished and they are in a pretty bad emotional state,’’ the Broncos mentor said.

‘‘Then they go to a press conference and are asked about the referees - it’s pretty hard not to say what you really think.

‘‘I have a lot of empathy for them. It’s the last place you want to be.’’

While Bennett could understand why Greenberg came to protect the referees this week, he believed the game would be better with less technology - and the bunker.

‘‘I would scrap the bunker, I would do it tomorrow,’’ Bennett said.

‘‘Personally I didn’t want it to come in in the first place.

‘‘I think we need less technology than more, I hope we go that way in the future.

‘‘Todd is trying to give them protection because it [referee criticism] does trickle down [to grass roots].

‘‘But I have always said the bunker will make mistakes - it’s human nature.

‘‘The most popular sport in the world is soccer and the only technology is a ball going into the goal - they understand the ramifications if they have the technology and they don’t want it.’’

As for tonight’s match, Kodi Nikorima will start at fullback for Brisbane in place of regular skipper Darius Boyd with Kiwi veteran Benji Marshall remaining in the halves with Anthony Milford.