There were three incidents in Round 22 with players making contact with a referee, but Match review committee coordinator Michael Buettner explains why they were not charged by the NRL Match review committee.
The NRL guidelines state: In the course of play, there may be occasions on which there is accidental contact between a player and a match official. Contact which is properly categorised as accidental will not constitute an offence.
"You can see from the three incidents in the footage, that all the contact involved incidental or accidental contact with the referee," Buettner said.
"With the Jarryd Hayne incident, you can see the referee is stepping back, Hayne is in a position where he is looking to support the next play so the contact there was deemed incidental."
