Under-fire ref getting NRL’S full backing
THE NRL have thrown their support behind under-fire referee Ben Cummins.
The official at the centre of the six-again call in the grand final has been criticised by everyone from Russell Crowe to Wally Lewis and Johnathan Thurston after the Sydney Roosters scraped home 14-8.
Cummins himself said just last week he at times doesn’t want to go out in public after “a dusty game” to avoid copping it from unhappy fans.
And as ARL Commission chairman Peter Beattie said yesterday, Cummins wouldn’t have been feeling good following the grand final.
“Sometimes things happen that are no one’s fault,” he said.
“Nobody is saying Ben went out there to make a bad decision. Of course he didn’t.
“We will support him because at the end of the day if people keep vilifying referees no one will want to do this job.”
Beattie mirrored the view of NRL head of football Graham Annesley who insisted the correct call was made even if the process was wrong.
Regardless, it can’t be denied that it came at a crucial time, with possession awarded to the Roosters after Jack Wighton saw six-again signalled before it was reversed.
“Being a referee, there is nothing more difficult in rugby league,” Beattie said.
“I can understand why a lot of Raiders fans were unhappy with what happened but the reality was a mistake was made and it was corrected.
“When you’ve got a linesman and the assistant referee giving advice, you can’t ignore it. He’s not going to feel terribly good today, of course he’s not. There is controversy around … (but) we’ve got to be sensitive about these things. These people are not robots, they are people.”
— Scott Bailey and
Steve Zemek