The NRL has told bunker officials to only go back in play and order sin-bins in the most serious cases, after conceding match referees went too far on the weekend.
League officials spent Monday combing through the record 18 sin-bins from round eight, while pinning the blame firmly on players for a rise in high tackles.
NRL CEO Andrew Abdo also insisted there was no crackdown in place, but only a “slight over-reaction” from referees after several missed sin-bins earlier this year.
It means the NRL will make no apology for continuing to sin-bin players where required at Magic Round, amid fears of a repeat of the 2021 fiasco in Brisbane.
But NRL bosses have conceded the bunker is interfering too often when play has continued after a high tackle.
While the bunker will still act as normal and recommend a punishment if the game is stopped by foul play, the bar will be lifted higher for video officials to intervene if the match is flowing.
“If the play has moved on and it’s marginal on whether they should be binned or not, then we should continue and allow the match review committee to deal with that,” NRL head of football Graham Annesley told AAP.
“If it’s at the lower end of the scale, we don’t want the game stopped and players put in the bin for incidents that can be dealt with by way of report and reviewed by the match committee later.
“But most of the examples that we’ve reviewed today from the weekend, we’re comfortable that the sin bin was the appropriate action.
“There were a couple that shouldn’t have been binned and a couple more that probably should have been binned.”
Latrell Mitchell is sent to the sin bin by referee Peter Gough. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Annesley stressed bunker officials would still have the power to go back and sin-bin or send off if required, and he was not concerned by the prospect of players staying down to delay play themselves.
The change comes after the likes of rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns labelled the current situation as “farcical”, “embarrassing” and “beyond a joke”.
Johns went as far as to remain silent for the final 23 minutes of the Tigers’ golden-point win over Cronulla on Sunday, exasperated by a bunker decision to go back several plays and sin-bin Wests prop Fonua Pole.
But Annesley said the onus was on players, with a 95 per cent increase in high-tackle charges this season compared with the first eight rounds last year.
“Everyone has to accept some of the responsibility here,” he said.
“It’s never been permissible in our game for players to make contact with the head and neck … this is not a new phenomenon.”
Annesley also said the league was attempting to close any gap between match officials and the review committee on sanctions for dangerous play.
Of the 31 players sin-binned for dangerous acts this season, 17 have received suspensions and 12 have been fined. Twice players have not even been charged.
Alarmingly, the match review committee has also handed out 13 suspensions to players who the bunker did not deem worthy of sending to the sin bin.
It means that of the 44 players sin-binned or suspended this season, the bunker and match review committee’s stances have significantly differed on 15 of them.
“We work very hard to try and make sure we address those incidents with either the match officials or match review committee, where we feel one or the other has been off the mark,” Annesley said.
“In some cases, it can be that it’s understandable why the referees took the action that they did based on the information that they had to review.
“And it’s equally understandable why the match review committee made the decision they did based on the time that they had to examine it.”
Fate of players sin-binned in 2025
Players sin-binned for dangerous acts: 31
Suspended: 17
Fined: 12
Not charged: 2
Suspended players in 2025
Sin-binned in game: 17
Penalised in game: 5
On report, no penalty: 4
No penalty, no report: 4
