NRL 2024 news, Legends take bunker penalty in Dolphins vs Manly Sea Eagles after Tom Trbojevic touches face

May 10, 2024 Vaseline stjohnson 0

Some of rugby league’s biggest legends have taken aim at the NRL Bunker over a bizarre call during Thursday night’s match.

Manly were tied 22-22 with the Dolphins in a thriller at Suncorp Stadium when fullback Tom Trbojevic dropped a bomb deep in his own half.

The Sea Eagles’ No. 1 proceeded to fumble the ball while trying to get up, and referee Ashley Klein called for a Dolphins scrum.

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But Manly questioned the decision and reviewing official Gerard Sutton found that Dolphins prop Jesse Bromwich had accidentally brushed Trbojevic’s face when the latter fell into the tackle.

As a result, he awarded a penalty against Bromwich, giving the Sea Eagles a kick downfield. Another penalty in the next set allowed Manly to take a 24-22 lead; then, perhaps fortunately for Sutton, the Dolphins won the game with a late try.

League icon Paul Vautin couldn’t believe Bunker’s decision to penalize Bromwich.

“Are you serious? Our game is over,” Vautin fumed in a comment to Nine.

“It’s over if you’re penalizing that. Honestly. I bet the guy who made that decision has never stepped foot on a football field. What a mess.”

Vautin was asked about the incident again after the game and was still just as fired up.

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“It was embarrassing for the game,” Vautin said.

“There’s not a single player in the last 116 years who would say that’s a penalty. This little hand to the face, it was absolutely nothing.

“Gerard Sutton, he’s a very experienced referee, he’s been around for quite a while – I don’t see how he could find fault with that.

“That’s wrong. I can’t even talk about it, it was that bad. It was horrible.”

Cowboys legend Johnathan Thurston agreed the punishment was a bad look for rugby league.

“Look, we just want consistency,” Thurston told Nine.

“There are tons of these in every game. That’s a touch. There’s no forceful contact. It has to be forceful contact to the head and then that’s a penalty.

“If you hit it like that, it’s not a forceful contact. That penalty left me stunned.

“As Fatty (Vautin) said, rugby league died tonight after seeing that.”

The next morning, in the cold light of day, Maroons great Darren Lockyer was asked about the penalty imposed on Nine. Today.

While the excitement had worn off by this time, Lockyer still couldn’t believe what he had seen.

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“They certainly made a mistake,” Lockyer said.

“If we are going to penalize little touches like that… what I hate to see is players lying around trying to take advantage of penalties, I don’t think it’s a good image for the game.

“If penalties are going to be given for that type of contact, you’re going to see players lying down waiting for replays to get penalties, and that’s not what we want.

“The Bunker will admit they were wrong last night. They need to have a little more discretion about what they think is hard contact and what isn’t.

“It was totally wrong and not a good look for the game.”

Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett agreed that he should not have been penalized.

“I didn’t think it should have been a penalty,” Bennett said after the win.

“It seemed like there was no intention to hit him in the head. It was just the way he fell and the way Jesse came in.

“I thought he was backing out. I didn’t even think he was trying to move on.

“There was always going to be contact. We have to realize that sometimes it’s accidental contact, not deliberate contact.”

NRL head of football Graham Annesley will no doubt speak about Sutton’s decision shortly.