{"id":391376,"date":"2024-05-06T23:00:11","date_gmt":"2024-05-06T23:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=391376"},"modified":"2024-05-07T00:03:41","modified_gmt":"2024-05-07T00:03:41","slug":"not-a-gender-issue-bizarre-claim-as-billy-blasts-cowards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=391376","title":{"rendered":"'Not a gender issue': Bizarre claim as Billy blasts 'cowards'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Billy Slater<\/a> has taken aim at "cowards" who piled on to abuse referee Kasey Badger over the weekend.<\/p>\n

But NRL<\/a>'s head of football Graham Annesley believes the vitriol was not exacerbated by the fact Badger is a woman, and had more to do with her inexperience.<\/p>\n

Badger was criticised for losing control of the game at Accor Stadium on Saturday in which three decisions were successfully overturned by the Tigers<\/a>, and two of their players were sin-binned but Aidan Sezer allowed to stay on the field following an ugly tackle.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> NRL's 'absolutely pathetic' reaction to 'shameful' act<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Worrying Wayne act could come back to bite Bunnies<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'Outgunned' Aussie loses world title in Japan\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Players including Tigers prop David Klemmer voiced their anger at Badger on the field, but the worst comments came on social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Rob Bechara, who hosts a Tigers fan podcast, tweeted Badger should get "Back to the kitchen you dumb f—\ufeff" and labelled her a "bitch".<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Despite this, Annesley said the criticism was not gender-based.<\/p>\n

"This is not a gender issue," Annesley told media on Monday.<\/p>\n

"Even when referees do make mistakes, they don't make mistakes because of their gender \u2013 they make mistakes because they're human.<\/p>\n

"Plenty of players have towered over male referees, and attempted to exert some influence. It doesn't only happen to female referees. It's not a gender issue.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2024 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"In this particular case, Kasey is in [charge] of her third NRL game, she's a rookie referee, and players will try to test rookie referees, regardless of gender. They'll see how far they can push them.<\/p>\n

"Referees accept they'll be tested, but we have to know where that line in the sand is, and not overstep that mark.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/twitter.com\/MichelleTaupau\/status\/1787062476468785482?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw<\/a><\/p>\n

"It can incite the fans. She'll learn an enormous amount from that game."<\/p>\n

Slater has been vocal about keyboard warriors on social media before.<\/p>\n

He was concerned by what he read following Saturday's game, saying Badger actually handled the fiery contest well.<\/p>\n

"I applaud Kasey Badger for putting them in the bin," he told Nine's The Billy Slater<\/em> Podcast<\/em>.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffIf you think you can do a better job, go and do it. Go and put your hand up to be a referee.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/omny.fm\/shows\/the-billy-slater-podcast\/billy-s-stern-message-for-referee-critics\/embed?in_playlist=podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

"Don't go on social media and be a coward \ufeffand abuse someone. If you think you can do better than the person you're having a go at, go and put the boots on, grab a whistle… you've got no right to abuse anyone.<\/p>\n

"The referees do a fantastic job, we need them. If we don't have referees we don't have a game.<\/p>\n

"I see that as a coward act."\ufeff<\/p>\n

The NRL will reveal its round 10 referee appointments on Tuesday afternoon.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Billy Slater has taken aim at "cowards" who piled on to abuse referee Kasey Badger over the weekend. But NRL's head of football Graham Annesley […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":390860,"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\/391376"}],"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=391376"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":391378,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391376\/revisions\/391378"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/390860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=391376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=391376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=391376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}