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Referees boss Tony Archer backs Wayne Bennett's call on Daly Cherry-Evans dive

Michael Chammas
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NRL referees boss Tony Archer says the match officials got it wrong when they rewarded Manly skipper Daly Cherry-Evans for taking a dive to deny Brisbane a try on Saturday night.

Cherry-Evans' attempt to milk a penalty was enough to deny the Broncos a try late in the match at Suncorp Stadium, convincing video referees that Sam Thaiday had obstructed his chances of making a tackle.

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Bennett slams Cherry-Evans for dive

Wayne Bennett voiced his concerns diving is growing in the NRL, accusing Daly Cherry-Evans of taking a fall.

Broncos coach Wayne Bennett wasn't impressed with the decision after the match and warned the game was on the brink of a diving epidemic if referees continued to reward players for acting.

It's not the first time this year a team has been rewarded for milking a penalty, with Paul Gallen's acting skills denying the Wests Tigers a try earlier in the season.

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Archer admitted the video referees shouldn't have overturned the live decision of try given Cherry-Evans made the decision to commit to Thaiday.

"After reviewing the play, I'm of the opinion that Cherry-Evans makes a decision to defend Sam Thaiday," Archer said.

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"The ball is received outside of Thaiday and as a result I believe there's insufficient evidence to overturn the live decision."

Bennett claimed Cherry-Evans changed his line to ensure Thaiday collided with his outside shoulder, raising concerns over the ramifications such a decision would have on the game.

"If we're going to allow that to happen, then that [backline] move has just about gone out of the game," Bennett said after his side's come-from-behind win against Manly.

"Without going into a lot of detail, because I'll obviously have to talk to Tony Archer about it, but you just can't have blokes diving and doing that and think they can all play football. That will be the start tonight – everybody will be doing it in the next two months, I guarantee you. It's about the inside shoulder line, but Sam stayed on his inside shoulder. He changed his line. if he had stayed on his line then sam would've gone back on his inside shoulder.

"You can't have it both ways - you can't change your line and all of a sudden there's a minor collision – it wasn't even a collision. If you change your line then you just can't get tapped like he did there and fall over backwards. It was obviously deliberate. he realised he was gone and made the wrong decision defensively. You can't have them running the outside shoulder – I understand that and accept that."

While there has been plenty of criticism of Cherry-Evans' perceived unsportsmanlike conduct, Bennett refused to blame the Manly halfback, rather insists it's time the game's administrators took control of the situation.

"I'm not critical of him [Cherry-Evans], we have officials and administrators in the game who have to make decisions and say that's not acceptable," Bennett said.

"It happened last night, it happened tonight and it's gong to happen a lot more. That's why I'm telling you all."

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