![\"NRL](\"https:\/\/vms-network-images-prod.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com\/2021\/03\/350954\/pickerImage.jpg\")
<\/p>\nNew technology could finally render forward passes a thing of the past – but don't hold your breath on a fix this season, NRL head of football elite competitions Graham Annesley said.<\/p>\n
The former Titans boss said that he was in contact 'pretty regularly' with a company developing a system to automatically detect forward passes.<\/p>\n
He declined to name who the NRL was working with – but that he would ask them if they were happy to be identified.<\/p>\n
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"Is it going to happen this season? No, it's not going to happen this season. But we are making good progress in terms of a potential development that would help solve this problem," he said in his weekly briefing on Monday.<\/p>\n
"It's a problem that's been around the game for as long as it's been covered on television."<\/p>\n
Annesley said the technology would not be trialed in an NRL game, and could potentially be done at a club's training session.<\/p>\n
"We have been talking to a company for quite some time and I'm hopeful that we're not that far off a trial, a test of the technology. If we get to that point and we can be convinced that the technology is accurate, then it becomes a business case that we have to mount to the commission to justify the expenditure.<\/p>\n
"We have to demonstrate that whatever that cost is, that there'll be a corresponding benefit to the game. If it's successful, then we're on our way," he said.<\/p>\n
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An incident on the weekend has thrust the issue back into the spotlight – with Raiders fans furious that a pass from Kodi Nikorima to Ben Murdoch-Masila was allowed to stand.<\/p>\n
The try was a key moment in sparking a 21-point comeback from the Warriors, the largest in club history<\/a>.<\/p>\n "That drew attention to the pass – there's also the fact that the ball receiver has to reach out to get the ball."<\/p>\n "We've had this discussion many times about forward passes, and camera angles and all sorts of things,<\/p>\n "This decision's been reviewed by the refereeing department and by Jared Maxwell and they believe it's a forward pass. We put up our hand on this one."<\/p>\n "Camera angles can be deceiving at times and there are some factors there that possibly exaggerated the look of it when it took place.<\/p>\n "But I'm not going to sit here and try to defend that it wasn't forward."<\/p>\n Annesley said he hadn't spoken to Raiders coach Ricky Stuart about the incident, but that Jared Maxwell had.<\/p>\n Stuart stormed out of his post-game press conference without answering a question<\/a>, alluding to his frustration with several calls in the match.<\/p>\n Annesley said that Stuart's conduct was still examined.<\/p>\n "They are matters I'm not directly responsible for … from what I'm told, those matters are still being looked into."<\/p>\n For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"Ugly](\"https:\/\/vms-network-images-prod.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com\/2021\/03\/350934\/pickerImage.jpg\")
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