Refs should be held accountable - NRL

St George Illawarra coach Nathan Brown has voiced his support of an NRL initiative to make referees more accountable after his side was found to be on the wrong end of a match-winning decision.

The NRL have announced that all contentious refereeing decisions would be scrutinised in a new weekly report to provide greater transparency and accountability by officials.

Referees boss Robert Finch released the first report on Monday, which stated the Bulldogs should not have been awarded a crucial try in their thrilling 22-16 NRL win over the Dragons on Friday night.

Video referee Bill Harrigan awarded a controversial 21st minute try to Bulldogs halfback Brent Sherwin, who got the benefit of the doubt despite a suggestion of obstruction from Mark O'Meley on Matt Bickerstaff.

Brown said the decision had a "huge" bearing on the game, but supported any move to clear up contentious decisions.

"We all make mistakes," Brown said.

"Sometimes the referees are ridiculed because sometimes some people don't know the rules.

"I think this new policy could be a good one because it actually enlightens some people on the rules.

"It doesn't give us the two points back but it's good they've said they're wrong and put their hands up.

"We can now get on with life."

The Dragons coach said the hardest mistakes to swallow where those made by the video referee.

"I thought Steve Clark ref'd pretty well and did a good job in a tough, close game," he said.

"The video referee should get most of them right.

"We had a chance late in the game but couldn't quite hit the front again but obviously sometimes you get a couple of calls and unfortunately the other day we didn't get one.

"Maybe somewhere down the track we'll get one that comes back our way.

"You can't get the perfect players so you can't expect the perfect ref.

"It's hard for anyone not to expect referees to not make mistakes.

"As long as you try to be consistent, hopefully everyone learns from it."

NRL chief operating officer Graham Annesley said the initiative will be trialled for the remainder of the 2006 season.

"Contentious refereeing decisions often create emotional debate at the time but rarely is there any official announcement clarifying whether the officials were right or wrong," Annesley said.

"This is another important step in demonstrating transparency and accountability across all parts of our game and where a referee does make a mistake we will continue our policy of acknowledging the error.

"Conversely, where the officials have made the correct call the NRL has a responsibility to back them up publicly."