Monday Bunker: Referees crisis, Roosters fire, Bulldogs woes

[dar0ck]

1. IT’s the NRL issue that won’t go away.
   
   With referees again in the spotlight at the weekend, following a pair of contentious calls in Canberra’s controversial loss to Cronulla, the Monday Bunker discussed the hottest topic in rugby league.
   
   “It’s now reached crisis point, it’s gone beyond a joke,” host Paul Crawley said.
   
   Phil “Buzz” Rothfield joined the Monday Bunker to voice his concerns with refereeing standards in the NRL - and the impact it had on supporters.
   
   “I’ve never ever had more emails from disgruntled fans who are telling me rugby league has lost them,” Rothfield said.
   
   “They couldn’t even watch the second game on Friday night, they were that angry about what happened.”
   
   Rothfield went further, saying the NRL’s football department needed to be overhauled.
   
   “The NRL has to do a full review of the refereeing in that game and particularly those two incidents,” he said.
   
   “And it has to be an independent review, Bernard Sutton can have nothing to do with it because his brother is involved.
   
   “I don’t want to keep carrying on about nepotism and favourites in refereeing appointments but it’s been going on all year.
   
   “Under Matt Cecchin we saw three of the greatest grand finals we’ve ever seen with Souths winning, with the Cowboys winning, and with the Cronulla Sharks winning.
   
   “We saw great Origin matches.
   
   “You know what they did to him this year? They made him Henry Perenara’s assistant. This is a scandal.”