NRL world erupts at controversial bunker call to deny Storm a try in grand final

NRL fans have been left baffled after a controversial call by the bunker in Sunday night’s grand final that proved to be correct.

The Panthers won their historic fourth-straight premiership 14-6, but were on the right side of a massive call by the bunker in the second half that denied the Storm the chance to draw level and take the lead.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: New angle of controversial call.

Trailing 6-10, Jack Howarth pulled off what looked like a miraculous try after some great work by Xavier Coates on the sideline.

Coates jumped up high to collect a high kick before passing back to Howarth, who crossed the line while being tackled by multiple Panthers.

Storm thought they had scored but referee Ashley Klein said Howarth was held up and the bunker confirmed it.

On replay, it looked like the ball had touched the ground, but the bunker stuck with the original call, deeming Howarth’s own arm as preventing the ball touching the ground.

Andrew Johns couldn’t believe it.

“Geez, another look at that, please - the ball hits the ground. It’s down! It hits the ground!?” He said in commentary.

After the match, vision shown to the media by NRL head of football Graham Annesley in the bowels of Accor Stadium showed Klein and bunker official Grant Atkins had made the correct call.

Annesley showed frame-by-frame replays of the footage which revealed that at no point did Howarth ground the ball.

“When I saw it live I was saying what everyone else was saying, I thought I saw the ball on the ground,” Annesley said.

“It’s only when we go back and look at it clearly that you can see the different colour between the arm and the ball.

“The ball is sitting on top of the arm, which then gets lifted up.

“They (the bunker officials) are looking at this over and over again before they announce their decision while we generally have one replay.

“We don’t have time to clinically examine it like this but the bottom line is that the decision was correct.”

Fans were baffled by what they saw on TV.

“NRL explain how the bunker called this held up?? Absolute robbery by the refs, better hope this isn’t the difference that could have won the game for the Storm!” One fan said.

“Try all day long.. bunker has ruined this grand final with a horrible decision,” another said.

“Robbed. Thats a try. Bunker once again is a joke,” another added.

“NRL bunker. What a deadset farce that decision is,” another said.

“Bunker unanimously the worst kind of VAR in all of world sport,” another added.

“If Melbourne lose this game because of the inadequacies of the Bunker, calling “No Try” to a ball that CLEARLY made contact with the turf, there are going to be riots. Biased officiating,” another said.

“The bunker had 23 views but not the one televised that 2 million people saw. How can this game be taken seriously?” Another said

Penrith scored again shortly after the incident to open up an eight-point lead, which they held until the end of the game.

- With AAP