{"id":498917,"date":"2026-04-13T22:39:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T22:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=498917"},"modified":"2026-04-14T01:24:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T01:24:07","slug":"gould-claims-nrl-has-opened-the-door-for-cheating-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=498917","title":{"rendered":"Gould claims NRL has opened the door for 'cheating' teams"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phil Gould<\/a> has fired a broadside at the NRL, claiming head office had lost control of the way games are officiated, opening the door for "cheating" teams to milk penalties and six agains and game the HIA system.<\/p>\n

The disruptor<\/a>, six agains and head high\ufeffs have become a major talking point this season, with frustration in some circles over how the game is being officiated.<\/p>\n

Two disruptor rule last round led to an admission from the NRL<\/a> that the Bunker had twice got crucial calls wrong. \ufeff<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Broncos set for major boost amid longer turnaround<\/strong><\/a>\ufeff<\/strong><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Butters sent straight to tribunal after umpire abuse allegation<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> 'I certainly regret it': Hull's dad apologises after blow-up<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

There has also been conjecture around ruck infringement calls since the season started, with confusion around six again calls, which aren't explained on the run by officials.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On Nine's 100% Footy<\/em>, Gould, Canterbury's football department boss, said the referees are under the impression they're doing a good job because "no one reins them in".<\/p>\n

"No one educates them in exactly what we're trying to do," he said.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffAnd they're not footballers, they're officials, they're referees and that's the difficulty of it.<\/p>\n

"Our \ufeffgame for the last three decades has given too much latitude to the referees and too much control of the rules to the coaches. Get both of them out of it and we'll solve the issues we've got."<\/p>\n

Gould went on to say the disruptor rule, or "dementor rule" as he called it, had gone "too far". He then expressed his frustration towards other rules, claiming that teams were using tactics to take advantage of rules that were designed for player safety.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Slater:<\/p>\n

"Look at all the six agains \ufeffin the game, my god they're going to wave their arms off," he said.<\/p>\n

"It's affecting the game in a lot of ways, the high tackle scr\ufeffutiny and everything like that. We've got teams that are cheating by playing for high tackles and playing for penalties.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffWe've got teams that are cheating with HIA for replacements for big forwards and faking HIAs to get off the field.<\/p>\n

"They can do it because the game can't control it anymore. The game knows it's happening but they can't control it because that's the pickle it's got itself into.<\/p>\n

"It takes a strong hand to deal with it and we just haven't got it at the moment."\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Phil Gould has fired a broadside at the NRL, claiming head office had lost control of the way games are officiated, opening the door for […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":498919,"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\/498917"}],"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=498917"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":498922,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498917\/revisions\/498922"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/498919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=498917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=498917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=498917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}