NRL is assessing the bunker’s future, and looking at ‘skeletal tracking’ technology for forward passes


NRL is assessing the bunker's future, and looking at 'skeletal tracking' technology for forward passes

The NRL is considering the use of “skeletal tracking” to pick up forward passes as debate continues to rage about the merits of keeping the controversial, multi-million-dollar bunker.

The NRL’s head of football elite competitions, Graham Annesley, has revealed the league is researching the viability of such extreme motion technology following another round blighted by video refereeing howlers.

Annesley said skeletal tracking was essentially “measuring the movement of every limb and the bones within the limb” to determine whether the hands of a pass actually released the ball forwards or backwards.

Forward passes are not currently looked at by replay officials, although there have been calls to use the bunker to do so after some controversial incidents this season.

Soccer, Major League Baseball, the NBA and NFL have all trialled optical player tracking, although it is largely used by teams for data analytics and biomechanics.

Now the NRL — currently in contract negotiations with its technology providers — is balancing the cost effectiveness of going down a similar path.

The only certainty, he said, was that the NRL would continue using electronic assistance for officiating in some shape or form.

Scrapping the bunker would be a matter for the Australian Rugby League Commission, and while Annesley said there was no suggestion this would happen, fans and critics needed to accept no system was fool proof.

The league’s contract for the bunker technology reportedly comes to an end in the next two months.

The NRL says there will definitely be an ongoing replay system — but it might not include a centralised bunker.(Supplied: Fox Sports)

“We’ll definitely have some form of replay system in place. If we had no form of replay system in place to help with decision making, we’d be getting a lot more decisions wrong,” he said.

“And part of that equipment could include this sort of technology. It doesn’t necessarily mean it has to be in a centralised bunker.

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Bunker officials Steve Clarke and Ben Galea were dramatically dropped late last Saturday night after botching a call in Cronulla’s tight win over St George Illawarra, when the Sharks’ Jack Williams was awarded a try but replays showed the Dragons’ Matt Dufty had got his hand to the ball.

Annesley said there was no guarantee the pair would be restored this week.

“We have to see who is available, but you don’t just on the basis of one decision wipe these people forever, so they’ll be back,” he said.

“And hopefully they’ll be better for the experience and they’ll have learnt something from it.”

In another development, senior referees Ashley Klein and Henry Perenara could return to the bunker as early as this round having previously been locked out of the biosecurity bubble.

“Pre-COVID, they would referee games on one day of the weekend and during other games they would act in the bunker,” Annesley said.

“They’re keen to get back involved. The only reason they haven’t been doing it this year is because of the COVID restrictions and the referees are in a bubble just like the clubs are in a bubble.

“But late last week, we had our biosecurity experts go out to the bunker to have a look at how we could make some alterations to the arrangements that would allow individual referees to come in.”

AAP/ABC


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