THIRTY-THREE penalties in the space of 80 minutes in a game between the NRL’s two most recent premiers.

Friday night’s penalty-palooza involving the Sharks and Storm was the tipping point that outraged the game’s most prominent commentators and according to Phil Gould led to a directive from the NRL to the referees to soften their hard line stance.

Over the course of the first five games of Round 4 a total of 120 penalties were blown at an average of 24 per game and just 41 in the final three games at an average of 13.67 penalties per game.

Round 20

Many were of the view that the coaches had finally copped the tip that the crackdown of the first month was only going to intensify but Gould revealed on 100 Per Cent Footy on Monday night that the referees were in fact the ones who backed down.

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“The referees were given an instruction on Sunday morning to tone back on it,” Gould said.

“To just get back to refereeing the important penalties, the ones that were obvious and we saw only 14 or 15 penalties in the two Sunday games and only 11 penalties in the Tigers-Parramatta game.

“Which by the end of it, because the ball was in play longer, both sides were out on their feet, there were plenty of opportunities for attacking players, we saw a scoreline of 30-20, plenty of tries being scored.

“On Friday night with 33 penalties we had one try scored between two of the best teams in the competition and an absolute farce for our game.

“I would hope that common sense has prevailed and they have now realised they were in the wrong to do what they did — or they’ve been embarrassed by what they’ve tried to do.”

Given the events of Friday night the Daily Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield also expressed his view on NRL 360 that the NRL had made a decision to back down rather than risk more negative backlash.

“I reckon someone has made a phone call over the weekend,” Rothfield said.

“After that Good Friday disaster — and it was horrible, horrible football — there were 15 penalties in the Broncos-Titans game, 15 in the Dragons-Knights and 11 in Parramatta and Wests Tigers.

“I didn’t notice that teams weren’t creeping up or that the play-the-balls were different and I just hope that a call was made.

“I think that the NRL is going to make some effort not to go quite so hard.”

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Denying that he had ever been given directives from the top of the NRL when he was in charge of the referees, former leading whistleblower Bill Harrigan said that the NRL had come too far now to show any sign of relenting.

“We have to keep going with it,” Harrigan said on the Big League Wrap’s Controversy Corner segment.

“I believe after you watched the Cronulla game — 33 penalties — and then you watched St George versus Newcastle, it changed. Why did it change? Because the players and the coaches finally got it.

“There was no wrestle, they were getting back their 10 metres and they were playing the ball with their foot.”

Having made his first grade debut with the Panthers in 1976, Gould has seen first-hand the evolution of the rugby league rule book and has no doubt the way the game is played will be determined by those who deserve to be in control of the outcomes; the players.

“Everything you’ve seen down through the ages has been about this balance between attacking football and defensive football and where the two shall meet,” Gould said.

“A section of our game and administration say that fans love attacking brilliant football so we’ve got to get the defence out of the game and every time they do that the defence has got to come up with a tactic to get itself back in the contest.

Just 11 penalties were blown as the Wests Tigers outscored the Eels 30-20 at ANZ Stadium on Monday. Photo: Phil Hillyard Source: News Corp Australia

“This battle between attack and defence is waged off the field and it affects what happens on the field.

“Eventually we learn that we can’t actually change what’s going to happen, it will be decided by the players and that’s where it should be decided.

“We will slowly get back to where we were and we’ll evolve, as it’s done for the last 50 years.”