South Sydney chief executive Shane Richardson has rubbished calls for referees boss Robert Finch to be sacked despite the Rabbitohs being potentially disadvantaged by the latest refereeing meltdown.
The Rabbitohs lost to the resurgent Eels at ANZ Stadium last Sunday afternoon in an encounter where referees Ben Cummins and Gerard Sutton incorrectly sin-binned Parramatta captain Nathan Cayless and Souths centre Beau Champion at different points of the second half.
Both Cummins and Sutton have been dropped for this weekend's round after they sent Cayless from the field for a strip on Sam Burgess that was actually committed by another Eel, Daniel Mortimer.
Just when the Rabbitohs appeared to be gaining some momentum, they were hit by Champion being sin-binned, the centre sent to the sidelines for a high tackle on Jarryd Hayne that most believe did not even warrant a penalty, let alone a sin-binning.
Following the match, NRL boss David Gallop refused to definitively say that Finch, the architect of the two referee system, would remain in his job next season as the system is widely believed to have fast-tracked young referees that are not experienced enough.
But Souths boss Richardson stepped in to bat for the embattled Finch.
"That's just absolute rubbish," said Richardson on calls for Finch's sacking.
"You know it's just a headline to be able to start a blog."
"At the end of the day, Robert Finch has done a great job. He has his moments, like all people involved, all referees, that's why they get booed when they come off the field."
"It's not the way you get the most popularity but I tell you what, we need somebody with the strength of Robert Finch to run referees and I can tell from my point of view, I couldn't have been happier with him in the role."
Richardson didn't pull his punches when describing Cummins and Sutton's mistakes, but said the competition needed young referees to be developed even if costly errors were made.
"(Clubs) keep on saying we've got some young players coming through, they're going to develop," Richardson said.
"But how are we going to develop young referees if we don't play them at the highest level."
"And that's the good news, that these young referees who probably may not have got involved with refereeing at a higher level for five years or so, they're now involved."
"Yeah, they're going to make some mistakes, like our young players make mistakes, like our young coaches make mistakes."
"But at the end of the day, it's got to be good for the game, we're bringing more referees through at a higher level for the long term of the game."
"It's not a pleasant job ... (but) we've got to encourage referees, we've got to show them respect because they've got the toughest gig in Rugby League."