NRL boss responds after Ivan Cleary lodges complaint over 'disturbing' change

Yahoo

25-06-2025

NRL boss Andrew Abdo has moved to quell concerns over the decision to grant the Australian Rugby League Commission power to charge players after concerns were raised by Ivan Cleary. The Penrith Panthers coach has led the concern over the ARLC granting itself permission to charge players who escape punishment from the match review committee if they deem it necessary. They also have the power to downplay a charge if the original decision is deemed too strict.
This led to backlash with Cleary claiming the ARLC's 'disturbing' decision leads him to believe they have no trust in the system. "I would suggest the danger there is that the Commission is not showing a lot of confidence in the MRC," Cleary said after Penrith's win over the Warriors on Saturday.
"I don't know if that's the actual reason, but you can assume that, which is a little disturbing. I think that's probably the main issue - do we have confidence in the MRC? And if we don't, then we probably should fix that up, rather than trying to maybe come up with a, 'We'll step in if we don't think it's right'."
Cleary used the example of Scott Sorensen's two-game ban as an example from the weekend. Sorensen's hip-drop style tackle on Dallin Watene-Zelezniak was not put on report during the game. However, the MRC deemed Sorrensen will miss two games for the tackle. This frustrated Cleary who felt their were inconsistencies in the game.
Cleary wasn't the only one frustrated with the change. Rugby League Players Association boss Clint Newton claimed it was an 'unprecedented over-reach' from the ARLC. And Abdo has responded to the concern from within the community.
Speaking on Wednesday, Abdo claimed the new rule was just an insurance policy for the league. "All it really means is that the Commission is able to, on very rare circumstances if ever, apply to the judiciary to review a matter that may have been missed by the match review committee, or may have, in their view, not been graded appropriately," he said.
"There could be an upwards movement of the grading, it could be a downwards movement of the grading. This would be in very rare, exceptional circumstances as an insurance policy. It's not a case of us being in a situation where we're going to see this applied regularly, if at all."
Abdo claimed he hadn't heard about Cleary's concerns ahead of clarifying what the ARLC's new power involves. But claimed each club will still be able to challenge their ruling and the judiciary will have the final say on all decisions. "The Commission has no powers to make a final decision, those powers will sit with the judiciary," Abdo said.
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Speaking ahead of the Bulldogs clash, Cleary hit out at the rules surrounding the hip-drop tackle. "I'm sure you've heard enough coaches post-game confused," Cleary said.
"The actual hip-drop rule, I don't even know who wrote it and when it was written; it's very vague and it's nothing like why it was brought in." Considering Sorensen wasn't penalised, Cleary felt it was harsh.
"I think he was very hard done by," Cleary said of Sorensen. "Scott made a tackle that is, in most people's eyes, a classic rugby league tackle and no one saw it (a hip-drop) - Dallin, not any player on the field, not a referee, not a touch judge, not 18,000 fans.
"But someone got hurt, so we had to do a cold case and go back and try and find it. "It's definitely something that needs to be looked at because it's not just us and not just Scott, there's been a few others this year."
Speaking on Cleary's example around Sorensen, Abdo admitted it was their job to protect the players. "We'll make no apology for wanting to protect players and we'll also put the onus on the defender to take all measures to avoid those indicators (of a hip-drop)," Abdo said.