Sia Soliola expects the NRL's latest refereeing controversy will be swept under the carpet as the Canberra Raiders veteran awaits an answer to the million-dollar question plaguing rugby league.
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The Green Machine's finals hopes were all but dashed in controversial fashion and leaves the Raiders with it all to play for against the Melbourne Storm at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium on Saturday night.
Soliola says the NRL needs to hold someone accountable or run the risk of costly refereeing blunders becoming a blight on the game - but his question of "who is accountable" remains because he doesn't believe blame should be placed squarely on the whistleblowers.
Referee Gavin Reynolds and touch judge Ricky MacFarlane face being stood down for their mistakes in last Friday's Canberra-Cronulla clash while the bunker has come under fire for overturning an on-field ruling made by Gerard Sutton.
Ricky Stuart believes there it too much "noise" surrounding officials which clouds their on-field judgement, while rugby league legends Andrew Johns and Peter Sterling have accused the NRL of over-coaching referees.
"That’s the question, who is accountable for these decisions? That’s up to the people up there to make those decisions, whether they do or they don’t, I’m not sure," Soliola said.
"If you want my opinion, I predict the NRL bosses are just going to look at it and it’s just going to be the same predicament.
"They’re just going to say ‘they got it wrong this time’, and it’s going to get swept under the table and moved on. That’s generally how it has worked in the past and I can’t see it changing unless someone is held accountable.
"It’s good that this is going to addressed but on the flipside, we pay the price without getting the two points. This might be the defining part of our season and whether we make the eight or not."
Claims the Raiders' entire season was ruined by the refereeing howlers are off the mark and Soliola knows as much, but it doesn't mean the errors didn't prove costly against Cronulla.
NRL referees boss Bernie Sutton confirmed to Fairfax Media the questionable Sione Katoa try should have been disallowed as per the on-field call, while the forward pass call that denied Brad Abbey should have been let go.
As revealed by Fairfax Media on Friday night, the referees boss had asked to meet Stuart immediately after the game, but he declined as he went on to label the million-dollar bunker a "waste of time".
Soliola will be keeping an eye on the fallout from the game that hammered another nail into Canberra's finals hopes.
"We’ll let them review that, that’s out of our control now and I assume it’s going to be a talking point for this week for the media," Soliola said.
"We’ll see how that unravels, I’m really curious to see how this all pans out because it’s not to say it dictated the result or it was the be all and end all of our result, but it was a big influence in the game.
"I know the call is you’ve got to play to the whistle and that’s easy in hindsight. But as a player, when you’re out there and you see the ref going to his whistle, you see him that doing that gesture [and you stop].
"The big part was when the touchie put the flag up, to us that indicates that we stop the play and they’ve made the decision. We’re just reacting off what they’re doing.
"I know we’ve got to play to the whistle but there are other factors in there that were questionable."
NRL ROUND 20
Saturday: Melbourne Storm v Canberra Raiders at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, 7.35pm. TV: Live on Fox League.
