While the 2023 NRL season is heading to its conclusion, NRL boss Andrew Abdo has already announced a huge change for 2024.
On-field referees will be scrapped from the 2024 trials, with The Bunker having complete control of the game.
Borrowing from park cricket (where players from the batting team have to do main umpiring and square leg duties when there’s no official umpires), there will be two player-referees for each game (a squad member from the extended bench), one from each side.
Abdo explained the new arrangement while on the way home from another Vegas ‘research trip’: “We’re sick and tired of seeing high-profile referees ruin games with their incompetence. So we’re giving The Bunker the keys to check everything. And the two player-refs will only look after the tackle counts. And we put in two to counter any accusations of bias.”
For any penalty or Six Again call, the Bunker will communicate with the player-referees. And they’ll also continue to review tries in the background.
“We’re going to make sure our our best referees can focus on their Bunker duties. That precision may give them a clearer mind to make better decisions,” said Abdo. “Not going to lie, it’s going to be pretty clunky at first, and it may extend games a bit as we work out the kinks. But most players know the rules and we’ll be running refresher workshops over summer. But we’ll give it a shot as it can’t be any worse than our current system.”
