The referee in charge of the NRL grand final has provided much-needed context on a key issue as a bitter coaching feud is set to come to a head.
After explosive press conferences from Ivan Cleary and Wayne Bennett in the wake of the Bunnies’ victory in week one of the NRL finals, referee Gerard Sutton has revealed the truth on how much communication coaches have with referees.
The simmering feud between the two coaches, whose sides will contest the NRL grand final on Sunday, began after news emerged of Souths officials complaining to the NRL over the Panthers’ use of blockers to protect Nathan Cleary from kick pressure.
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In the post game presser, the elder Cleary declared the NRL had to make a call on “whether they’re going to allow coaches to deliberately manipulate referees and try to influence them”.
Bennett admitted he had “sent some information to the referees for clarification”, but didn’t feel the need to make that knowledge public.
According to veteran whistleblower Sutton, the lines of communication between the coaches in the NRL and the refereeing group are often used, but never with the referees themselves.
“Our coaches really act as our filters,” Sutton told 2GB.
“I don’t think it’s unusual; I think every week or every game, coaches at the various clubs are making inquiries about decisions and rulings and interpretations.
“There’s always different things trending in the game.
“Our coaching staff acts as filters to that, I suppose, and we don’t really have direct contact or dialogue with the coaches. We depend on the people that are in charge of our group to give us the clear direction about what we need to be doing, or treating different trends that are emerging.
“For me personally, I don’t think it has a huge influence at all.”
Sutton will control Sunday’s decider and not only does the 42-year-old need to ensure he gets the calls right, but he’ll want to avoid his decisions taking centre stage in a situation similar to an incident during the preliminary final between the Panthers and Storm.
Panthers winger Brian To’o crossed for a try in the left corner, but when Nathan Cleary lined up his conversion attempt, he appeared to be further infield from where To’o grounded the ball.
Sutton was the man in the middle for that game, and admitted a mistake like that can’t happen again.
“Collectively, we’ve got to be a bit better than that,” Sutton said.
“Whether it means we’ve got to take out a tape measure, a protractor, set square, whatever out there.
“Look, it’s one of those simple things.
“So many things in a game are complex, but that’s a really basic, simple thing.
“We definitely will get that right and will be right across where the mark is this week.”
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