CRONULLA have upset Melbourne 14-4 in one of the most dour affairs of the NRL season, marred by a massive penalty count.
The Sharks rattled the premiers from start to finish but the wash-up will centre on referees Matt Cecchin and Alan Shortall who blew 30 penalties.
On another three occasions Storm players were marched 10 metres for backchat. The game will place further scrutiny on NRL CEO Todd Greenberg and referees boss Bernie Sutton and their crackdown on infringements.
Added pressure has been thrown Greenberg’s way after NRL Immortal Andrew Johns posted to his Instagram page and stated he was “waiting for a response” from the boss.
Johns wasn’t alone with his criticism of the current state of the game as channel 9 commentator Paul Vautin also couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“What’s going on with our game? They’re bewildered, the whole rugby league world is bewildered as to what’s going on with the great game of rugby league,” Vautin said.
“I can understand penalties for infringements but they’re really nitpicking and going hard at everything and it’s just wrong.
“I feel very privileged to have the job that I have which is to commentate on rugby league and come and watch rugby league, tonight what I saw was so disappointing by giving, I think it was 32 penalties, and no one enjoyed it.
“No one enjoyed watching that game.
“I don’t know what’s going on.”
The game was a stop-start affair with the Storm failing to cross for a try despite the home side giving away 14 penalties.
Both sides were frustrated by persistent whistleblowing and referee Cecchin finally ran out of patience when he sin-binned Storm skipper Cameron Smith for dissent.
Smith was last year mockingly labelled “referee Cameron Smith” by Sharks coach Shane Flanagan and the 13,196-strong crowd was whipped into a frenzy when he was banished to the sheds for back chat.
Channel 9 commentator and legend of the game Phil Gould said the pressure to blow the whistle came from the CEO.
“He was easily the best referee in the game because he had the lowest penalty count,” Gould said.
“He got criticised regularly because his penalty counts weren’t up with everyone else’s.
“With this edict which has come from the CEO of the game … the edict that’s come from Todd Greenberg, why it’s come I don’t know.
“Tonight it got to the point where (Cecchin said), ‘I’m going to keep blowing this and blowing this and blowing this until it blows up,’ and it has blown up tonight.
Centre Will Chambers was also put on report for a grapple tackle late in the game.
The Sharks ran out winners after a try-less second half with three Chad Townsend penalty goals and a Joe Stimson penalty goal the only times the scoreboard attendant was bothered during the second stanza.
The Sharks went to half time up 8-2 despite having Luke Lewis sin-binned for 10 minutes midway through the first-half and being on the end of a 10-5 penalty count in the first 40.
Backlash surrounding the constant blowing of the whistle came in thick and fast with fans of the game growing increasingly angry about the state of the league.
“Put somebody in the sin bin. You can’t keep blowing penalties without sin binning players,” Fox Sports commentator Warren Smith proclaimed.
“The players and the referees both need to sort this out,” Braith Anasta added.
The only try of the game came when Jesse Ramien showed incredible pace to get on the outside of Curtis Scott and Josh Addo-Carr and popped a flick pass for Edrick Lee.
The Sharks were without strike weapons Matt Moylan (knee) and Josh Dugan (leg) but showed strong defensive resolve to keep the Storm try-less and collect the win.
After the game Melbourne Storm head coach Craig Bellamy refused to be drawn into the matter, repeatedly saying he was more concerned with his team’s lacklustre performance than that of the referees.
“That’s the way it is at the moment and we haven’t adapted to it.
“It was a frustrating game to watch but for me it was more frustrating because of the way we played.”
— with AAP
