State of Origin referee Gerard Sutton criticised for ‘overzealous’ officiating in Game III

State of Origin referee Gerard Sutton has been criticised after a slew of six-again calls blighted Game III on the Gold Coast.

Queensland won a tense final game 20-18, denying the Blues the chance of a historic clean sweep.

According to Channel 9, there were 15 set restarts called in the first half alone, leading commentator Phil Gould to accuse Sutton of being “overzealous”.

“Someone needs to go down and knock on the referee’s door and tell him he’s not the main attraction here this evening,” Gould said.

“He’s been way too overzealous with the penalties. Let the players decide the result.”

This season, the referee can call for the tackle count to be reset for players being offside as well as for infringements around the ruck, as was the case last year.

The idea of the rule change was to reduce the severity of the offside infringement so that it does not necessarily impact the outcome of a game as much as a straight penalty.

However, Blues legend Andrew Johns said the sheer volume of set restarts was having an impact.

“That’s 15 [set restarts] in 37 minutes,” Johns said.

“Can we let the players decide who wins the game?”

The Blues were also pinged for five penalties in the game, all in the first half, with the Maroons penalised twice in the second for an overall penalty count of 5-2 in favour of Queensland.

According to NRL.com, there were 13 set restarts, 7-6 in favour of the Blues.

Blues captain James Tedesco said he spoke to referee Sutton as the players left the field at half-time to ask about the number of penalties that had gone against his side, three of them in a fraught, ten-minute period at the end of the half.

In the second half, the Blues did not give away a single penalty and there was a noted reduction in set restarts.

Blues coach Brad Fittler criticised the referee during the second half, and said his team were not getting the rub of the green in the ruck area.

“It’s a bit hard, Joey,” he told Johns when asked about the Blues stuttering attack.

“They’re sort of lying all over us, to be fair. We’re not getting much joy from the ref.”