BJ wrote: ↑May 2, 2022, 7:58 pm
raiderskater wrote:Oh, **** off Annesley.
If it was that bad Lodge should have been off for a HIA.
He didn't go off, because it wasn't, because he's a EDIT.
Why does Annesley consistently twist and turn his reasoning between obvious poor decisions that go against the Raiders, whilst admitting errors against some of the big names teams and players. He’s called other decisions incorrect around diving and Lodge’s was about as clear as you get.
Last season he couldn’t admit to a miles forward pass that was clear to even opposing fans, but then he comes out and calls some other passes that looked reasonably flat as being forward, or that Turbo pass to Garrick against Eels as incorrectly called forward (despite it appearing to travel very slightly forward based on the 20m line).
It just feels to me that he cherry picks when to admit referee mistakes. And that’s affected other low profile teams and players not just Raiders.
He definitely cherry picks. If he thinks he can avoid it, he will, or if he can spin it, he will. He only avoids spin when it is plain as day that there is an error. The issues from our game were clearly controversial and covered extensively in the Sydney media over two days. The fact he thought he could just not deal with them in his briefing reflected his and the NRL's care factor about the Raiders and Warriors. It was just not a priority for him.
Even when asked, about the Horsburgh incident, he refused to admit the process was wrong. It probably should have been called a penalty on field. But it wasn't. The process requires that the bunker must find the incident to be reportable if they're to intervene. The reason for that process is to stop players diving for penalties... which Lodge obviously did. It also clearly wasn't reportable, otherwise the match review committee would have charged Horsburgh. So Lodge and the Warriors were both rewarded by the officials for diving.
And now all of a sudden Annesley says... oh, how do I know if he was injured or not? Well the officials aren't asked to do that. They are asked to examine and assess the nature of the contact.
The bottom line is, the outcome was probably right, but the process was certainly very wrong. And Annesley thought he'd not bother with admitting that the process was wrong. And he still hasn't, even after The Canberra Times had to contact him to ask the question. That was his approach after the 2019 Grand Final, too, btw.
The Lodge elbow? He said it was 50-50 call... but admitted he didn't even review the incident. That was after lots of commentators said he should have been sin binned, if not sent off. It wasn't just on the commentary, there were lots of stories about it too. There has been huge hue and cry about players not being binned or sent off for foul play in recent weeks... but for this incident? He didn't even take the time to review it!
So BJ you are perfectly justified in raising the issue.