KEY POINTS:
It's official - the NRL's referees do not pick on the Warriors.
After Wade McKinnon's sending-off last weekend, there was an outcry about bias against the Auckland team. However, NRL figures show it's clear none exists.
In 18 games this season, the Warriors' opponents have collected more penalties - 127 for the Warriors versus 133 for the combined opposition.
Nor are the Warriors the most penalised team in the competition; that dubious honour goes to cellar-dwellers Penrith with 149.
The table-leading Storm (110 penalties conceded) and Eagles (113) are second and third-best-behaved teams, with Wests Tigers the least penalised team (104).
The NRL stats suggest disciplined teams prosper, as all good coaches know.
They also show an evenness across the board that does not suggest a bias against any of the 16 teams in the competition.
McKinnon has the distinction of being one of four players sent off this year. The others are Kiwi Sonny Bill Williams in round one for a high shot on Andrew Johns, Cowboys forward Jaiman Lowe for a king hit out of play and Warriors wing Michael Crockett for a high shot on Cameron Phelps. The 15 sin-binnings are spread across 11 teams. The Warriors have been on the back-end of two of these - Louis Anderson for flopping on a player and Patrick Ah Van for a professional foul.
Steve Clark is the heaviest-handed of all refs, issuing most penalties and most sin-binnings and Tony Archer is second in both counts.
Along with the admission from the NRL that referee Paul Simpkins was wrong to send off McKinnon last weekend, there is a trail of anguish that has fuelled the rumour of bias.
The Warriors have suffered other poor decisions - at Souths when Jason Robinson ruled obstruction after Nathan Fien had scored. The game was won, just, but the no-try ruling resulted in new instructions to referees on obstruction.
Then there was McKinnon being denied a legitimate try in Townsville in similar circumstances when the Cowboys were 6-0 up. The game was lost by six.
Coach Ivan Cleary had spoken to McKinnon before last weekend about keeping his cool and it was a message reinforced this week by both Cleary and captain Steve Price.
"It can get a bit heated at times but the bottom line is there is only one winner and the weekend was a good example of that," Cleary said.
Price told McKinnon that, regardless whether a ref was right or wrong, he would not change his decision after looking at the big screen and arguing the toss would cost more ground.
Cleary said he had spoken to the NRL refs "and they've got no pre-conceived ideas about Wade".
Along with an admission from the NRL that referee Paul Simpkins was wrong to send off McKinnon at the end of last weekend's game, a spokesman said there would be no word of his sending-off on his record but the event would still be recorded in the match history.
