Johns also blasted the bunker’s ability to stop play and retrospectively send players to the bin for incidents that were missed at the time. And tellingly, the NRL will instruct bunker officials not to do that moving forward.
“There’s been no policy change, but obviously the implementation of the policy is where the issue is and the bunker intervening,” Abdo told News Corp on Monday. “It’s meant for serious acts of foul play and I think that there have been instances where it hasn’t met that threshold.
“So we want to obviously reinforce that threshold with the referees, particularly the bunker, because it does have an impact on the game when you pull it back and no one likes that, right? It’s really there for howlers. It’s really there for an exceptional, serious act of foul play.”
Johns said on Sunday: “The breakdown of this sending players to the bin is absolutely farcical. It’s gone beyond a joke. It is embarrassing. The over-analysis and the overreach of the bunker in play … the bunker should be used only for try-scoring opportunities unless it’s a send-off. If it’s an out-and-out send-off and they miss it, then fair enough, come in and send the player off.
“Going back eight plays in a set of six where the referee doesn’t see it, the touch judges don’t see it, the players don’t see it … to send someone to the bin is absolutely farcical.”
Disconnect between referees and match review committee
Tellingly, there’s already seems to be a disconnect between the on-field calls being made and the match review committee. In recent years, a sin-bin has traditionally equated to a grade-two charge from the match review committee and at least a one-game ban. But the NRL has lowered the marker for a sin-bin in recent weeks, with officials believed to be happy with fines in some instances.
Across the opening eight rounds, there have been 31 players sin-binned for dangerous acts. Of those, 17 have received suspensions and 12 have been fined. On two occasions, the match review committee cleared them altogether.
In contrast, the match review committee has handed out 13 suspensions to players who were not sin-binned on field. It means that of the 44 players sin-binned or suspended this season, the bunker and match review committee’s stances have been different on 15 of them.
Andrew Johns lashes out over NRL high tackle farce
Speaking on Channel 9 on Sunday, Andrew Johns urged NRL officials to make a public statement about what a player is supposed to do in Sorensen’s situation. Johns pointed out that Sorensen risked injury to himself if he didn’t brace for the contact or tried to tackle low, and would like dislocate a shoulder or elbow by wrapping his arms in such close proximity to teammates.
“They want players to defend low, but if Scott Sorensen goes low on Nathan Brown he’s gonna knock himself out as cold as a spud,” Johns said on the Footy Show. “If he wraps his arms, he will dislocate his shoulder – he has to brace and get himself into space. I have no idea what the NRL want this tackle to be and they have to come out tomorrow and explain what tackle they want in this situation.”