{"id":579618,"date":"2026-04-02T00:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T00:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/579618\/"},"modified":"2026-04-02T00:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T00:29:11","slug":"referee-liam-kennedy-dropped-clint-gutherson-responds-to-criticism-latest-news-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/579618\/","title":{"rendered":"Referee Liam Kennedy dropped; Clint Gutherson responds to criticism, latest news, updates"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NRL has reportedly axed referee Liam Kennedy after his controversial officiating of the Titans clash with the Dragons in Round 4.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Kennedy awarded 17 penalties and 11 set restarts with CODE Sports reporting the Titans voiced their frustration to the NRL despite coming out as winners.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThe NRL have created a process where clubs can inquire about decisions they want further answers on,\u201d Titans football chief Scott Sattler told CODE Sports.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe felt as though even in a winning game there were some situations we wanted clarity on. The NRL, to their credit, have given us clarity on some of those calls.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s easy to complain if you are not winning, but it\u2019s more important for the development of officials that even when you do win that there\u2019s still some areas of improvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kennedy was a notable omission when the referee appointments for Round 5 were released.<\/p>\n

The NRL told CODE Sports this was planned and part of the game\u2019s referee \u201crotation\u201d policy.<\/p>\n

GUTHO RESPONDS AS AWKWARD DRAGONS QUESTION EMERGES<\/p>\n

Clint Gutherson has responded to questions over his form and impact after the Dragons disastrous start to the season.<\/p>\n

Coach Shane Flanagan has stuck with the 31-year-old veteran fullback despite St George sitting bottom of the ladder.<\/p>\n

This week CODE Sports David Riccio said the Dragons needed to shift Gutherson to kick start their season.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou need an elite fullback in your team,\u201d Riccio said on NRL 360.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still think Gutho has value but I don\u2019t think he should play at six. I think the best spot would be at centre.<\/p>\n

\u201cStill have him out there, he\u2019s a valuable contributor and a leader but at fullback, I think it\u2019s gone past him.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Facing the media on Wednesday, Gutherson said he he still believed he could deliver for the Dragons when asked by a reporter whether he still had \u201cjuice in the legs\u201d to remain in the No,1 jersey.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still think i\u2019m doing a consistent job, always have my whole career,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like to think i\u2019m just a seven (out of 10) or around a seven and it doesn\u2019t go up or down too far.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know what I bring to the team and I\u2019m the first one to look at my game and make sure I\u2019m doing everything right. I\u2019m off in a couple of little bits but that\u2019s footy, you are never going to be perfect.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have full confidence in me doing the job, and until Shane and the staff don\u2019t think I can, that\u2019s where it\u2019s at.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL has reportedly axed referee Liam Kennedy after his controversial officiating of the Titans clash with the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":579619,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-579618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579618","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=579618"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/579618\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/579619"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=579618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=579618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=579618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}