Ivan Cleary’s Bunker criticism was on the money – here’s why

The coach’s hope that Butler isn’t appointed to the grand final is where his criticism crossed the line and has the NRL weighing up a punishment. But there’s little to argue with regarding Cleary’s take on the actual decision.

For several years now, any hint of a decoy-runner making contact with a defender’s outside shoulder has been game over – automatic obstruction and as black and white as an interpretation gets.

“‘Block’ or ‘flat’ runner[s] (who do not receive the ball) must not run at (chest or outside shoulder of) defender[s] and initiate contact” is the exact wording in the NRL rule book.

The same goes if a decoy runner initiates contact with the defender, though this is down to interpretation.

“The referee or review officials can determine the significance of contact initiated by the ‘Block’ or ‘flat’ runner[s] (who do not receive the ball) in impeding a defender’s involvement in a try-scoring play.”

Front-on replays of the 57th-minute play show Jarome Luai going to the line with decoy runner Luke Garner and Cronulla’s Siosifa Talakai lining up in defence.

The broadcaster’s camera angle is not directly behind the play, but using the broken line marking (positioned 20 metres in from the sideline) as a reference shows Garner positioning himself inside Talakai to begin his decoy run.

As the play continues, Garner’s trajectory doesn’t change when Luai passes the ball behind him to centre Paul Alamoti.

And when Talakai and Garner collide, Cleary and the experts are all in agreement.

“Talakai plays for the man … he instigates [contact] trying to get a penalty,” Johns says.

Cronk adds in Fox Sports commentary: “I think Talakai makes a bad decision, I think he goes for a short-cut here… He plays for the obstruction.”

Talakai braces for contact, makes it with his left, inside shoulder and throws his hands into the air as he’s falling to the ground – already looking for the referee’s intervention.

Per the Bunker audio, Butler obliges. “[Garner] runs at the outside shoulder of Sifa Talakai. Takes him out of the play. Denies him any opportunity to defend, which is an obstruction.”

The context to Cleary’s comments

Well, it’s the biggest week of the rugby league calendar, and Penrith are chasing a slice of history. No side has won four premierships in a row since St George on their record 11-title run before the salary cap was a thing.

Ivan Cleary tried the whole finals mind games through the media once before, and vowed never to do so again after Wayne Bennett took him to school in 2021.

Cleary told Penrith staff before walking into his post-game press conference that he was ready to have a crack over the obstruction call. And there is a theory his take-down also takes the focus off son Nathan’s suspect shoulder to start grand final week.

Fact is, it does. But Ivan Cleary, who was once an NRL referees consultant when between coaching jobs, also doesn’t whinge about officiating for fun.

A minute after holding court on Butler’s decision, he had the chance to double down when asked about Talakai’s late shot on Luai earlier in the match.

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Cronk and Johns both argued it warranted a sin bin. Cleary didn’t pile into the same theory despite Luai being levelled and Melbourne hammering his playmakers in the 2020 decider.

Instead, he referenced Wayne Bennett’s withering call to “get rid of the Bunker” when an obstruction call went against the Dolphins as their season ended three weeks ago.

Bennett’s comments garnered wide support at the time, and even then, an extensive review of the Bunker and officiating was already in the NRL’s off-season plans.

A smaller pool of referees using better review technology has been touted to ensure greater consistency from match to match.

Sorting out the obstruction rule and how it’s interpreted is surely next on the agenda.

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