The Penrith Panthers’ hopes of winning five-straight premierships remains alive after securing a 24-8 victory over the New Zealand Warriors on Saturday.

Despite the contest being played at Go Media Stadium in Auckland, the Panthers controlled the contest for the majority of the 80 minutes.

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After leading 12-2, the Warriors hit back with Leka Halasima scoring and bringing the margin back to only four points.

It was then that controversy hit.

With less than 15 minutes left on the clock, a Nathan Cleary kick from his own 20-yard line wasn’t caught and took a nasty bounce towards chasing Panther Luke Garner.

Garner offloaded it to Blaize Talagi who put in a grubber kick towards the sideline which was collected by Brian To’o who then drew in a defender before finding Casey McLean who scored uncontested.

But it was Garner’s initial offload that caught the attention of everyone watching on with questions raised over if it was forward or not.

Watch the controversial moment in the video player above

“Was it a forward pass? Play on the call. Forget the pass, the Panthers score an unbelievable finals try,” Warren Smith said on Fox League.

“Boy I’m not sure the Warriors fans will forget the pass. But it’s brilliant work from Garner. Boy, close your eyes at the pass if you’re a Warriors fan. Gee whiz, ball goes forward,” Michael Ennis said.

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Steve Roach added: ““I’m with you. I think the pass is forward.”

NRL great Cooper Cronk was blunt in his assessment of the moment.

“That was forward,” he said.

Kieran Foran added: “That was the part of the game where the Warriors were starting to gain some momentum and they were back in the contest, you thought they might come home strongly.

“That try really broke their backs. We’ve seen those called forward throughout the season, sometimes they get missed. It was an unfortunate one if you were a Warriors fan.”

The commentary crew weren’t alone in believing the offload had gone forward with fans on social media erupting and stating the decision to not penalise the pass killed the contest.

Mark Gottlieb wrote on X: “That’s a forward pass to me. Tight, and hardly a howler, but forward. All academic now though. You just can’t kill the Panthers.”

John Michaels added: “The forward pass killed this contest.”

Leith Ross wrote: “A mile forward that Pass from the Panthers!”

Another wrote: “OF COURSE the f***ing panthers score off a forward pass.”

A fifth posted: “Forward every day, completely destroyed the momentum there.”

The Bunker wouldn’t have helped the Warriors

While the outrage poured in, it would have mattered little with forward passes not scrutinised by the NRL Bunker.

When decisions are sent upstairs, no matter how blatant they might look … the Bunker is powerless against a forward pass.

And it all goes back to 2013 when chief operating officer of the NRL, Graham Annesley, said it was too subjective to call them.

“It’s massively subjective in a two-dimensional picture that distorts if the camera is not directly in line with it. Also, the rule itself is all about how the ball leaves the passer’s hand rather than the path that it travels across the ground, so a ball can be forward but thrown correctly and float forward and still be a legal pass,” he said at the time.

Originally published as NRL world left fuming after Panthers forward pass goes uncalled