Roger Tuivasa-Sheck Photo: Photosport
The decision not to send Stephen Crichton to the sin bin following a high shot on Roger Tuivasa-Sheck during the Warriors clash with the Bulldogs was a "judgement error", according to the NRL refs' boss.
Crichton has been slapped with a grade-two careless high tackle charge, after he collected Tuivasa-Sheck in the head with his shoulder - sending Tuivasa-Sheck to the sidelines for an HIA.
Tuivasa-Sheck will now spend a minimum 11 days sidelined due to HIA protocols - the incident effectively ending his 2024 season.
Crichton faces a one-match ban with an early guilty plea, or two if he is found guilty at judiciary.
During his weekly football briefing on Monday afternoon, NRL head of football elite competitions Graham Annesley said officials had "listened to the audio" of the bunker discussions and concluded the call - made by Bunker official Liam Kennedy - was "purely a judgement error".
"The bunker official involved didn't give due consideration to the impact of the tackle," he explained.
"They do have a criteria that they look at and you hear them talking about that sort of thing, but ultimately they have to make an assessment of how serious that particular incident was.
"It's purely a poor judgement call."
It follows the sin-binning of three Manly players on Thursday night, during their 34-26 loss to the Tigers, in what appeared to be a completely different Bunker approach to head-high contact.
During his post-match press conference on Friday night Warriors coach Andrew Webster took aim at the refs, calling for consistency and clarity.
"I'm struggling to understand how a shoulder can go into Roger's head and the bunker's got ages to see it in a critical time of the game and then we lose Roger and we've got to reshuffle all our team," he said.
"I just don't see the consistency one little bit. Roger will miss next week now and couldn't come back (into the game) and their player (Crichton) goes on (playing). That's it.
"I just think they need to know what they're doing, personally. I just don't think they know. I don't think they understand because the wording around what they say just isn't clear. It's hard."
Annesley said "a lot of time and effort goes into trying to get the referees and the Match Review Committee on the same page with these things".
"Sometimes, people's judgement just lets them down."
He would not confirm whether Kennedy would be stood down this week, other than to say official appointments have not been made yet.
"You can probably gauge from my comments that it was obviously a serious error."
The Warriors face the Cronulla Sharks for their last game for 2024 on Saturday night, as they end the regular season on a bye and outside finals contention in the top eight.
