NRL

The fallout from Sunday’s controversial Eden Park semi-final between the Warriors and Knights has continued with reports veteran referee Ashley Klein has been dropped for the NRL preliminary finals.

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On Monday NRL officials confirmed Klein should have awarded the Warriors a crucial last-minute penalty for an escort by Tyson Frizell which would have given them a chance to level the scores and send the match into golden point extra time.

“I thought they were trying to find ways to take it off us,” Warriors coach Andrew Webster said after the game of the critical moment.

“Two points would have drawn the game, he (Frizell) is going across Leka, pretending to try and catch the ball which they’ve told us you can’t do.”

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Long considered the game’s top referee by NRL powerbrokers, Klein has refereed 32 finals matches in his career to date.

The 47-year-old took charge of all three matches in this year’s State of Origin series and has only missed the preliminary finals once since the 2019 season when the was dropped in 2023 after missing a crucial knock-on and high tackle in the Storm-Roosters semifinal.

Just 12 months ago Klein famously blew 18 penalties in the Storm’s 2025 preliminary final win over Cronulla and lost the grand final job to Grant Atkins.

Either Atkins or Gerard Sutton is expected to take Klein’s place this weekend, with Adam Gee the favourite to control this year’s NRL season decider on October 4.

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