NRL boss Graham Annesley addresses confusion over press conference crackdown
NRL head of football Graham Annesley has clarified the ruling around press conferences and criticism of referees after confusion has reigned over the opening four rounds.
In early March, it was revealed NRL chief executive officer, Andrew Abdo, had written to all coaches, warning them about criticising referees post-match.
Until round three, every coach had adhered to the rules but Ricky Stuart then toed the line as he questioned why his team was on the wrong side of the six-again count.
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The outspoken Raiders coach avoided criticising referee Grant Atkins directly and wasn't fined, instead stating "I hope Andrew Abdo has an answer for us all".
Ricky Stuart of the Canberra Raiders. Nine
Following the Tigers' round four loss to the Warriors, coach Benji Marshall said his team "got no favours" but mentioned Stuart when refusing to elaborate.
"I don't want to do what Ricky did and risk getting fined and talk about the ref because we're not allowed to, so I won't bring it up. I don't think we are [allowed to]," he said.
Speaking on 2GB's Wide World of Sports Radio, Annesley made clear what coaches can and can't say when it comes to criticising officials.
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"The rules around comments by coaches under our code of conduct are very clear. They can't make derogatory comments about match officials, they can't attack their performance or integrity," he said.
"They can make legitimate observations about the game. They can say 'that incident in the 45th minute, I didn't agree with that', that's fine, that's just a legitimate observation but they can't claim that somehow there's been a different standard applied to their team than the opposition.
"They can't do anything that brings into question the integrity or the performance of the referee but they can disagree with individual decisions."
The NRL boss went on to state coaches "certainly haven't been gagged".
"They go to press conferences to talk about the game, we just don't want them unnecessarily attacking or making derogatory comments about the match officials and that's been in our rules for a long time," he said.
