Andrew Abdo hits back at Wayne Bennett's 'ridiculous' Bunker claim

NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo has labelled the notion of scrapping the Bunker "ridiculous".

The comments were in response to Wayne Bennett's spray at the $3.2 million system after the Dolphins' season-ending 14-6 loss to the Knights in Newcastle on Sunday afternoon.

Dolphins fullback Trai Fuller were denied the opening try of the afternoon, after the Bunker ruled Connelly Lemuelu had obstructed Brodie Jones earlier in the play. Jack Cogger had also been impacted.

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In commentary for Nine, NRL greats Andrew Johns and Phil Gould said the call was "so wrong", and that it was an incorrect defensive decision by Cogger that led to the obstruction on Jones.

Speaking to media after the match, Bennett called on the NRL to "get rid of" the Bunker.

At the launch of the NRL's finals series in Sydney on Monday, Abdo scoffed at the suggestion.

"I think it's ridiculous to consider a sport not using technology to make decisions," he said.

"If you think about all the decisions that are made with (tries) scored in the corners … we've seen the Bunker be really efficient, quick and accurate, and 99 per cent of the time they get it right.

"Then you're going to get calls that are subjective. Obstruction is where we have guidelines, but it is ultimately a call that needs to be made.

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"When you have lead runners take out defenders, you run the risk of that being called back and penalised.

"When I talk about the Bunker, it's nothing more than a referee using technology to assist the on-field referee to make the right call for the fans," he said.

"Talk that the Bunker is of no value, I don't think that's right."

Bennett said before the days of video referees and the Bunker, coaches accepted calls would be wrong on occasion. He claimed the Bunker had on two other occasions this year made incorrect calls that had cost his Dolphins side the match.

In his weekly briefing, NRL football boss Graham Annesley while Cogger did make a defensive call to tackle Lemuelu, that didn't impact on Jones' entitlement to be able to make a tackle on Fuller.

"Jack Cogger ... that is strictly a defensive decision, but other defenders, including Jones, he has the right to try to cover the lead runner, but he also has the right to continue across to try and chase the ball," Annesley said.

"He does that, and he does a pretty good job of getting there ... but he does have his run checked. He has to reset, set off in the chase, and gets there.

"In this instance, would he have got there one or two steps earlier and been able to effect a better tackle? Potentially, we'll never know the answer to that.

"But the fact is there was contact by the lead runner on a player who is entitled to try and defend without being impacted by a player from the team in possession who doesn't have the ball.

"And that's exactly what happened."

Abdo said he had "no issue" with Bennett's comments, but disagreed with them.

"Wayne is one of the all-time great coaches of our game and he's just been inducted into the Hall of Fame, so he's entitled to his views and opinions.

"He's talking about all he's put into the season and he feels hard done by, and I can respect that.

"He hasn't called into account the integrity of any of the officials so I don't have any issue with him expressing his views.

"I don't necessarily agree, but that's his right."

The loss to the Knights was Bennett's last game in charge of the Dolphins. He will rejoin South Sydney in the new year.

The Knights meanwhile will travel to Townsville on Saturday night to take on the Cowboys.