{"id":871626,"date":"2026-08-28T16:06:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T16:06:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/871626\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T16:06:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T16:06:23","slug":"nrl-2026-ivan-cleary-slams-bunker-blunder-as-tom-jenkins-denied-try-penrith-panthers-press-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/871626\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Ivan Cleary slams Bunker blunder as Tom Jenkins denied try, Penrith Panthers press conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ivan Cleary has teed off at a \u201cridiculous\u201d Bunker call which Michael Ennis agreed was a \u201cblunder\u201d in Penrith\u2019s 24-10 win over the Bulldogs on Friday night.<\/a><\/p>\n

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In the 24th minute Thomas Jenkins and Jacob Kiraz were competing for a bomb when the Penrith winger came down with it and scored.<\/p>\n

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Going up to the Bunker as no try, referee Gerard Sutton said: \u201cI believe that Jacob Kiraz has taken possession and that Thomas Jenkins strips it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The rules state that as long as a player makes a clean catch in the in-goal, they can\u2019t be stripped of the ball when caught on the full. <\/p>\n

Cooper Cronk said at the time: \u201cHe needs to secure this because if there\u2019s any bobble, then it\u2019s play on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat doesn\u2019t look particularly secure,\u201d caller Dan Ginnane added.<\/p>\n

Ennis: “Frustration from all of us!” | 00:33<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for Penrith, the Bunker ruled that Kiraz had control of the ball leading to a 20-metre restart.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt looked like he did secure it, but then there was a bobble,\u201d Cronk then said.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse for Penrith, the Bulldogs then went the length of the field and scored after Lachlan Galvin threw a perfect pass to Matt Burton after drawing in multiple defenders.<\/p>\n

In his post-match press conference, Cleary was asked about the decision and couldn\u2019t hide his frustration at the lack of common sense surrounding the interpretation.<\/p>\n

\u201cDid it pass the pub test that one? It\u2019s ridiculous,\u201d Cleary said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf he caught the ball, with no-one around him, in the air and dropped it, what would happen?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just ridiculous. It was a huge call because they got a penalty and scored in the next set.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the halftime break, Fox League\u2019s Ennis disagreed with the Bunker\u2019s decision, arguing it looked like a try in real time. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s a blunder from the Bunker,\u201d Ennis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it was played in full speed on first look, I thought it was a try. But we slowed it down and there were still frames to show that momentarily Jacob Kiraz caught the footy. When you watch it in full speed, it\u2019s in one motion. He steals the ball brilliantly. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a great frustration from all of us that we don\u2019t watch replays in full speed to get what it\u2019s actually like in that moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panthers secure win over determined Dogs | 02:47<\/p>\n

Fellow commentator Kevin Walters hoped the decision wouldn\u2019t decide a tight game as Penrith went into the sheds up 8-4.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a big moment in the game, and let\u2019s cross our fingers and our toes that they did get it right, the Bunker, because of course following this, the Bulldogs got the ball and they go down the field and scored a try,\u201d Walters said<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what made it an even bigger moment because the Bulldogs in the next set of six marched on down the other end of the field and scored,\u201d Ennis added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ivan Cleary has teed off at a \u201cridiculous\u201d Bunker call which Michael Ennis agreed was a \u201cblunder\u201d in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871627,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-871626","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\/871626","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=871626"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871626\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}