HENRY’S FINE MESS
TITANS coach Neil Henry could be issued with a breach notice for public comment about video referees even though the Gold Coast mentor found powerful support in his anguish over a crucial ruling.
The NRL will today meet to consider Henry’s post-game comments about a Greg Inglis try in South Sydney’s 22-16 win over the Titans and a radio interview with Triple M yesterday where the Titans boss again reiterated his disappointment in the ruling and 11-6 lopsided penalty count.
The governing body introduced a blanket ban on referee comment in 2015 meaning Henry and Canberra coach Ricky Stuart, who walked out of his press conference to avoid breaching that rule on Saturday night, could be hit with fines as early as today.
Henry though has promised to take the fight to referees boss Tony Archer as it was the second controversial try ruling against the Titans at home this year in games where such a decision contributed to the final result.
The Titans two-point loss to Newcastle earlier in the season came on the back of a missed obstruction call for a Dane Gagai try that referees boss Archer later apologised to the Gold Coast for being wrong.
Archer was unavailable for comment yesterday because he was attending a game elsewhere and couldn’t properly review the incident without access to all the vision and audio from the game. But the general consensus in rugby league circles is utter confusion about how video officials Jared Maxwell and Ben Galea could overturn the no-try ruling on field after Inglis ran behind a teammate who was standing in the defensive line.
It prompted Parramatta great Peter Sterling to echo a prospect first raised by Gorden Tallis seven weeks ago to strip video referees of the power to adjudicate on obstruction.
“They got the decision right on the field and it should’ve been a decision made on the field and we send it upstairs and we have no reason to overturn,” Sterling told the Sunday Footy Show.
“It’s no try, you can’t run behind. It was dealt with on the field, I promise you the fans and public will not see obstruction or shepherds if we don’t continue to go upstairs for these kinds of decisions.
“Take the video referee out of this situation, he is not needed.”