{"id":331692,"date":"2023-09-17T04:33:33","date_gmt":"2023-09-17T04:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=331692"},"modified":"2023-09-17T05:01:01","modified_gmt":"2023-09-17T05:01:01","slug":"legends-defend-human-being-ref-after-blunders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=331692","title":{"rendered":"Legends defend 'human being' ref after blunders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Slater<\/a> has defended referee Ashley Klein<\/a>, saying the decorated referee "is a human being" who "makes mistakes" after a series of errors marred the Storm-Roosters semi final on Friday night<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The most high-profile error involved a Harry Grant knock-on that was missed by Klein<\/a> \u2013\u00a0 despite the fact he was virtually on top of the play.<\/p>\n

Instead of a Roosters<\/a> ball on the Melbourne<\/a> line, the Storm went length of the field in the next set for Marion Seve to score.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Why NRL great's prison sentence was a 'life saver'<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

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During the break after the try, Klein approached Roosters skipper James Tedesco<\/a> to apologise.<\/p>\n

\"Referee<\/p>\n

Speaking on Nine's Sunday Footy Show<\/em>, Brad Fittler<\/a> said that miss was the "play of the night", but suggested successive Storm infractions after that Seve try should have been enough for a player to be sin-binned.<\/p>\n

With the Roosters parked on the Storm line once again, Cameron Munster<\/a> first gave away a six-again for a ruck infringement, but that was upgraded to a full-blown penalty when he then didn't get square at the marker.<\/p>\n

Stream every game of the 2023 NRL finals series live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Only 30 seconds later, he gave away another six-again, this time for being within the 10m.<\/p>\n

Less than two minutes later, Grant also gave away a penalty and a six again within a minute.<\/p>\n

\"Legend\u00a0left\u00a0shocked\u00a0by\u00a0call\"<\/p>\n

All five infractions came within the four minutes before Brandon Smith<\/a> finally scored for the Roosters.<\/p>\n

"The Storm just put too much pressure \u2026 as they do to defend their own line, (Klein) did nothing about it," Fittler said.<\/p>\n

"There was five penalties or six-agains in three minutes and no one got binned in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"I thought that was a hard call on the Roosters."<\/p>\n

The 44-year-old Klein is one of the NRL's most senior whistleblowers, and has controlled 377 games since his debut in 2009. He's also controlled three Anzac Tests, 16 \ufeffWorld Cup matches, 14 Origins and the 2022 NRL grand final.<\/p>\n

\"How<\/p>\n

He is likely to be called upon to run either of the preliminary finals, and then possibly the grand final.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Also on the Sunday Footy Show,<\/em> Slater suggested Klein's honesty in owning the mistake was refreshing, as was Trent Robinson's press conference where he called out the Roosters defence instead of blaming the ref.<\/p>\n

"(Robinson) said, 'look it's obviously the wrong decision, but we had an opportunity to make a tackle too and stop the try'," he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"So there were errors from both teams \u2013 referees make errors as well."<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

However, Slater did say a high shot \u2013 again on Grant \u2013 in the closing minutes that went unpunished should have been penalised.<\/p>\n

"Right at the death and he didn't make the call. He didn't want to make the call. The bunker didn't want to make the call," he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

"That's a penalty every day, every game this year, but when it comes to a semi-final and the game's on the line, they're reluctant to make that call."<\/p>\n

"But I think they're human beings and they make mistakes and he's owned up to it."<\/p>\n

The Storm will now travel to Sydney to take on the Panthers at Accor Stadium for a sport in the grand final on Friday night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billy Slater has defended referee Ashley Klein, saying the decorated referee "is a human being" who "makes mistakes" after a series of errors marred the […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":331694,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331692"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=331692"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":331698,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/331692\/revisions\/331698"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/331694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=331692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=331692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=331692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}