Officials punished after embarrassing seventh tackle blunder.
NRL head of Football Todd Greenberg has announced referees Matt Cecchin and Henry Perenara will not be standing in any of the finals games this weekend.
Their sacking comes as the code tries to recover from a shocking mistake which saw the Cronulla Sharks centre Beau Ryan score on an illegal seventh tackle in their 20-18 win against North Queensland.
The mistake has caused widespread outrage from not just Cowboys fans but across the code, with stakeholders expressing their disgust for the continued lack of accountability for referees.
Video referees from the game, Matt Rodwell and Jason Robinson, have also been given the weekend off and Greenberg said steps have been taken to ensure similar blunders don’t occur again.
The review, conducted by referees’ boss Daniel Anderson and Greenberg concluded that on-field referees must always vocalise each tackle so players and the match officials squad are aware of the count at all times.
“The referees accept there are consequences for actions and that’s likely to cost them significantly in the finals series ahead when Daniel confirms his appointments,” Greenberg said.
“We do need to keep a sense of perspective. At our end we need to ensure that everything can be done to prevent human error.
“We also need to accept that in a game as intense and as fast paced as rugby league that you will never eradicate all mistakes either on the part of the players or the officials.”
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