Another thrilling finish. Another NRL c**k-up?
Manly won Monday night’s match with a field goal but confused rulings over time off in the thrilling final minutes raised the possibility Newcastle still had an opportunity to win.
The referee correctly allowed the clock to stop after Newcastle’s Darius Boyd had earlier failed with a field goal attempt, but inexplicably did not call time out when Manly’s Jack Littlejohn was also unsuccessful.
The Sea Eagles won the match 15-14 when Daly Cherry-Evans kicked a one-pointer, from a seventh-tackle play-the-ball with five seconds left on the TV time clock.
The NRL introduced a rule this year which does not allow time off in the final five minutes of a game, except for mandated stoppages.
Most coaches, and probably all fans, believed that time off was only called following a conversion, a successful penalty kick at goal or field goal, with play restarted at the centre of the half way line: rule 2(a).
However, rule 2(b) also says time out applies in the final five minutes of a match “following an unsuccessful penalty kick at goal or field goal that goes in touch in-goal or over the dead-ball line.”
The NRL’s general manager of football operations Nathan McGuirk confirmed the referee was correct in calling time out following Boyd’s failed attempt but could not explain why he did not stop the clock following Littlejohn’s attempt.
Fans contacting the Herald have calculated Newcastle still had 11 seconds left following Cherry-Evans' successful attempt, if the time out had been called.
A short kick-off, yielding a penalty, could have seen the Knights win the game.
Following the controversial end to the Melbourne versus St George Illawarra game, referees have been pedantic about ruling full-time, blowing it during a play-the-ball and disregarding scrums already packed by the trailing team.
Yet, as one fan asked, “If the NRL is taking the stance that the blowing of the full-time siren and the referee calling full-time must be precise to the second, then how come the referees are not applying Rule 2(b) the instant the missed field goal crosses the dead ball line?”
When explaining the new rules back in April, the NRL did not mention that unsuccessful field goals would result in time off.
And the NRL's 2014 rule 2(b), unlike 2(a), doesn't say when or where time on restarts.
If fans, and some of the NRL’s top coaches, don’t know the rules, rugby league could end up like rugby union. Fans with long memories are accustomed to the Silvertails winning matches on the seventh tackle.
This time, however, the Sea Eagles were legitimately allowed an extra tackle.
Another rule, also introduced this season, awards possession at the 20-metre line, plus seven tackles, to a team following a kick by the opposition that goes dead.
It was designed to stop the negative tactic of teams kicking the ball over the dead-ball line in order to eat up the clock, or prevent brilliant fullbacks returning the ball.
The rules have, as the Herald predicted earlier this year, meant unsuccessful field goals at one end of the field are punished by successful ones at the other end.
Furthermore, it has also caused the near-death of golden point.
Ironically, the losing coach on Monday night – Newcastle’s Wayne Bennett – is a member of the rules committee which introduced seventh-tackle field goals.
