Super-coach Wayne Bennett has doubled down on his attack on the NRL Bunker, claiming no major sport in the world over-uses such a flawed system.
Bennett was seething after believing an incorrect play-the-ball from Manly preceded a key try against South Sydney in their last-up loss to the Sea Eagles.
“We’ve got a Bunker – it’s supposed to be perfect because they expect us to be perfect. They have all the opportunity to make a decision and to see it and they still get it wrong,” Bennett said at the time.
“They don’t get it right all the time, and they should, because they’ve got the benefit of hindsight, and there’s no time limit on their decision making.
“I’m a fan of no Bunker, I can tell you. I’d rather just the game played on with life and accept it like we always accepted it.”
Rugby league’s longest-serving mentor, who has coached 972 games in an uninterrupted 40-year career, on Wednesday revealed the NRL had been in touch since his Thursday night spray.
“Well, they apologised to us because they got a couple of things wrong,” Bennett said, before continuing his criticism of the video replay system.
“But it hasn’t changed my opinion and I won’t change it. They know how I feel about it, but mine’s only one opinion. Other people have obviously got opinions on it.
“But I look at the world’s games, whether it’s soccer, gridiron, basketball, whatever, I don’t think there’s any other code in the world uses the bunker as much as we do.
“And I asked myself the question, ‘Why if it was such a great innovation, why aren’t the other codes buying into it?’
“The other codes aren’t buying into it because they realise it’s not going to help their game.
“So I’ve got to assume that we think we’ve got it right, but I think we haven’t.”
Cricket has the DRS, the AFL uses the ARC, soccer fans rue the use of the VAR, while rugby union’s frustrating TMO is also often a talking point with the painstaking amount of time it can take for officials to make a ruling.
Bennett is adamant rugby league fans would also be happier without the Bunker.
“The other codes have remained pretty strong about what they don’t use in it, and I think it’s a better thing because the game continues to move on very quickly and you forget about that moment pretty quickly,” said the seven-time premiership-winning coach.
“But we put ours up on a board, on a replay board, it could be two or three minutes. You’re just sitting there watching, making your own opinion about it all – and then we still get it wrong.”
