Debate over the Warriors and referee bias continues to rumble on, with some commentators saying the Warriors must earn the right to get the rub of the green.
Jason Paris, chief of telco One NZ and the team's main sponsor, went on a social media rampage during the Warriors' 18-6 Magic Round loss, accusing officials of "cheating of the highest order".
The Warriors were perplexed by referee Todd Smith's decision to overlook a possible high tackle on captain Tohu Harris from Panthers enforcer Moses Leota.
Dallin Watene-Zelezniak was also sent for a head injury assessment after being glanced in the face by a Tyrone Peachey swipe that went unpunished.
Adding to their frustrations was the fact the Warriors also had rookie Demitric Sifakula (striking) and Jackson Ford (hip-drop tackle) sent to the sin bin.
Speaking on NRL360 last night, host Paul Kent said Paris' claims that the referees were cheating during the Warriors' loss to the Panthers over the weekend were "clearly unacceptable", although did agree there was some level of bias against the Kiwi side.
"He’s said there’s an unconscious bias against the Warriors. Now I don’t disagree with that. I think there’s an unconscious bias against a lot of the lower teams," Kent said.
"They have a lot of tough calls. But it’s not the referees cheating or a conspiracy theory where the NRL don’t want them to win.
"The way to get past it is you’ve just got to earn your way past it with wins, and the Warriors are slowly getting there."
Kent pointed to the North Queensland Cowboys as an example of a team that received a lot of tough decisions last season, but worked past it by winning games.
"Todd Payten said something last year about how they don’t get the rub of the green and 50:50 calls. I’ve long said 50:50 calls generally go 60:40, the good teams get 60 the bad teams get 40.
"Over the duration of [last] season [the Cowboys] earned the right to get the advantage and the rub of the green their way.
"The Warriors – bad luck, but you’ve just got to go through it and if you’re going to stay at the bottom of the table like they have been and other clubs have been then unfortunately that just happens."
Sports Minister Grant Robertson even weighed in on the debate today, saying he could "understand" where the concerns were coming from.
The sports minister said he'd watched a few Warriors games and could understand where the concerns were coming from. (Source: 1News)
"I think the Warriors are having a good season. If you look at it over a period of time there are a lot of decisions that I know Warriors fans have found really questionable so I can understand why people are complaining.
"I don't think I'm going to put myself up as an NRL ref so I'm just saying that I can understand and I've certainly heard from plenty of Warriors fans how they feel about it."
Yesterday, NRL boss Graham Annesley came to the defence of his referees, saying there "was no comment that could be worse" than allegations of cheating.
"The referees work very, very hard to do their best, not just at the NRL level but kids at the park on the weekend.
"The nature of the game is that there will be disagreement about the decisions that they make.
"We can question their decision making, but we can't question their integrity.
"It questions the integrity of the entire NRL administration because we appoint these people."
He said suggestions of a bias against the Warriors were laughable.
"I can go to eight losing clubs on any given week and they'll all tell me they didn't get the rub of the green," he said.
"This is not something that's peculiar to a team in New Zealand."
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