{"id":174542,"date":"2025-09-28T06:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-28T06:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/174542\/"},"modified":"2025-09-28T06:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-28T06:19:08","slug":"ashley-klein-set-to-be-sacked-from-refereeing-grand-final-grant-atkins-to-officiate-2025-decider-phil-rothfield-rugby-league-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/174542\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashley Klein set to be sacked from refereeing grand final, Grant Atkins to officiate 2025 decider, Phil Rothfield, rugby league news"},"content":{"rendered":"

Grant Atkins is reportedly set to be tasked with officiating next Sunday\u2019s NRL decider following Ashley Klein\u2019s penalty-a-thon on Friday night.<\/p>\n

Watch every game of the NRL Telstra Premiership Finals Series before the Grand Final, LIVE with no ad-breaks during play on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

Klein entered preliminary final week as the favourite to be officiating this year\u2019s grand final, but his performance in the Storm-Sharks prelim was heavily panned after he whistled 18 penalties.<\/p>\n

\u201cMate, if that\u2019s a prelim and you want a grand final to have 18 penalties \u2026 I am not sooking about the ref, the better side won today,\u201d Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said.<\/p>\n

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\u201cMelbourne were the better side today, hands down. But I think the first half was 22 minutes of ball-in-play. What are we doing for a prelim?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Daily Telegraph\u2019s Phil Rothfield has reported that Klein has paid the price.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m 99.9% certain that Ashley Klein will be sacked as grand final referee,\u201d Rothfield said on Triple M\u2019s Sunday Sin Bin.<\/p>\n

I spoke to key people at the NRL and these people have been really strong backers of Ashley Klein for a number of years, but they were really disappointed with his performance on Friday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll Grant Atkins has to do is get a pass mark at Suncorp Stadium this afternoon and he will referee his first grand final.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bellamy says Hughes return a “big call” | 12:12<\/p>\n

MORE NRL NEWS<\/p>\n

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SHARKS RATINGS: Marquee stars misfire; unheralded forwards stand tall<\/a><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s not the first time this finals series that Klein\u2019s performance has come under fire.<\/p>\n

He officiated the controversial 94-minute epic between Brisbane and Canberra, with several calls criticised. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he had an off game,\u201d journalist Brent Read said following Brisbane\u2019s 29-28 win.<\/p>\n

Former NRL star Wade Graham is another who has been critical with the job Klein has done in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAshley Klein has been disappointing in this finals series. I think of the Raiders-Broncos games and then on Friday night,\u201d Graham said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way the game eventuated last night with the amount of penalties, I think that\u2019s it for him this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Klein has refereed three grand finals, including last year\u2019s Panthers-Storm decider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Grant Atkins is reportedly set to be tasked with officiating next Sunday\u2019s NRL decider following Ashley Klein\u2019s penalty-a-thon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174543,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[63,689,7292,26501,4567,30195,2667,4738,4565,17343,13213,763,2105,11288,113424,113426,83670,43,647,4466,44,677,19095,82581,41,39,42,40,45262,660,113425],"class_list":{"0":"post-174542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","10":"tag-australian-capital-territory","11":"tag-brent-read","12":"tag-cameron-munster","13":"tag-cameron-spencer","14":"tag-canberra","15":"tag-craig-fitzgibbon","16":"tag-cronulla-sharks","17":"tag-daily-telegraph","18":"tag-finals-series","19":"tag-fox-league","20":"tag-getty-images-inc","21":"tag-grand-final","22":"tag-grand-final-call","23":"tag-grand-final-referee","24":"tag-grant-atkins","25":"tag-headlines","26":"tag-melbourne","27":"tag-melbourne-storm","28":"tag-news","29":"tag-oceania","30":"tag-preliminary-final","31":"tag-preliminary-final-loss","32":"tag-top-news","33":"tag-top-stories","34":"tag-topnews","35":"tag-topstories","36":"tag-triple-m","37":"tag-victoria","38":"tag-wade-graham"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174542\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}