Melbourne's Billy Slater was taken from the field after a late shot from Canberra's Sia Soliola (left).

Senior NRL review official Bernard Sutton has taken the bullet for failing to send off Canberra forward Sia Soliola for last weekend's sickening hit on Melbourne's Billy Slater.

Referees boss Tony Archer has also pinned the blame on Sutton and review and assistant referee Chris Butler, while lead on-field official Matt Cecchin has seemingly escaped scot-free.

As a result, Sutton will drop back to the role of regular bunker reviewer, and will have all his major decisions overseen by senior official Luke Patten.

"The officials who were ultimately responsible for the decision, given it occurred in back-play, were the senior review official and the assist referee," Archer said.

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"Bernie Sutton will not be a senior review official in round 21, and Chris Butler will officiate in reserve grade.

"It is my expectation that the assist referee firstly identifies incidents in back-play, while the senior review official should have taken stronger action due to the serious nature of this incident."

Regular review official Bryan Norrie has also escaped punishment. He and Cecchin will retain their positions for Friday night's clash between the Warriors and Cronulla.

Archer was particularly critical of the decision not to send Soliola off after the late and high hit, which floored Slater and ruled him out for this week's clash with Manly.

The former on-field referee released a statement in the hours after the game, declaring it had met the indicators required for a send-off.

Soliola's case was the first to be referred straight to the NRL judiciary in two years.