Phil Gould has unloaded on the NRL refereeing system, specifically the decisions involving strips and knock ons. Following round 18, the code again had to come out and publicly say they were wrong when Roosters debutant Sean O'Sullivan was awarded a try in ridiculous circumstances.
The decision was sent upstairs as a try, with the referee thinking that Titans forward Jarrod Wallace had stripped the ball from O'Sullivan's grasp, with O'Sullivan then going on to ground it.
Replays showed that Wallace had knocked the ball from O'Sullivan's grasp, but it could be argued O'Sullivan made a loose carry.
In any case, O'Sullivan then seemed to clearly knock the ball on along the post before he grounded it. Strangely, the bunker overlooked this and awarded a try.
You can watch the effort in the video below.
It wasn't pretty, but O'Sullivan gets the job done!#NRLTitansRoosters 6-14 with 4 minutes until HT. #NRL pic.twitter.com/9QIK6otdDQ
— NRL (@NRL) July 15, 2018
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Fans were furious, but mostly dumbfounded as to how certain 'professionals' came to this decision despite looking at the same play as everyone else.
Gus didn't hold back in his scathing criticism of the league and the current systems in place, claiming that the NRL has never fully clarified what the knock on or strip is.
"He (O'Sullivan) knows he didn't score, everyone in the world knows he didn't score," Gould said on Six Tackles With Gus.
"Why did the video ref award the try? It’s not about him awarding the try, then someone coming out and apologising afterwards.
“I don’t want the apology. No one wants the apology; the result is in the book.
"Why did he make that decision? How did he go through those angles, go through those replays and then talk himself into a decision that it was a try?
"At the basis of all of this is that the rule around stripping, losing possession and knock-ons has been a farce for 15 years. That we've allowed the referees to go along and make their own interpretations of this, to the point where it's become ridiculous.
“There is no one with the experience, the intelligence or the courage at the NRL to pull them up and say ‘hey this is a farce, you’ve got to change this’, we just let them go on and do what they like.
“(The referees are) different, they think differently. You’ve got to make sure you keep control of your product and you keep control of the game and the spirit of the game and what it’s meant to be.
“Unfortunately, we just don’t have any people down at the NRL that are willing to take on that role and the responsibility for it.
"The interpretation around stripping - if you run at me with the ball, and the ball is under your arm, how the hell can I knock it on? I haven't got possession. These are the stupidities of the stripping rule and where we've let the referees go with it.
“The referees look at the game completely differently to how fans, players and coaches look at it, and they’ve been allowed to run amok to the point where it’s become farcical.
“The reason The Bunker gets it wrong is because it’s never been clarified what a strip or knock-on is, no one knows anymore, it’s just in the hands of the gods.
“Our game has evolved over the last 110 years, but there’s been more changes in the last 15 years than the previous 95 years.
“Too many people with their fingers in the pot, allowing the referees to run their own race.
“It changes seasons, it changes careers.”
