Warriors assistant coach Andrew McFadden has hit out at the NRL CEO Todd Greenberg for showing a lack of leadership, as refereeing controversies continue to mar the season.
The backlash against the CEO comes after the NRL released a statement saying under-fire referee Gerard Sutton would be "assigned to a lower-profile match" - that fixture is the Warriors and Titans game.
- Warriors coach Stephen Kearney takes aim at referees
- Opinion: Breaking down the Warriors' run to the NRL finals
- Raiders coach Ricky Stuart unleashes tirade after Sharks loss
Sutton was subject to plenty of criticism after his performance during Friday's contest between the Canberra Raiders and the Cronulla Sharks, where some costly decisions could put an end to the Raiders' hopes of a top-eight finish.
Even though the NRL put out a statement, there was no word from referees boss Bernard Sutton, the brother of Gerard.
It was widely expected that Sutton would be axed altogether from this weekend's round of NRL action.
Warriors hooker Issac Luke took to Twitter to vent his frustrations, calling the incident an "insult" in a post he's since deleted.
"Just found out the low profile game is the Warriors vs Titans," Luke wrote. "What an insult. NRL go uppercut yourself. That's disrespectful to both teams."
Speaking to Trackside Radio, McFadden agreed with Luke and added he feels sorry for the referees.
"We need to support the referees and some people need to answer some questions at the top," he said. "They need to decide who is in charge of the referees.
"At the moment, we have a CEO who thinks he can make decisions all over the place, so I think if he has put people in charge, he has to empower those people to make a decision.
"But at the moment, we haven't heard from the referee's boss. I don't even know what he looks like, but I do know what our CEO looks like, because he is always on the TV.
"Somebody needs to come out with some leadership and need to be transparent about the mistakes they've made, so we can move on with it."
McFadden said no problem with Sutton controlling Sunday's clash with the Titans.
"In all honesty, I have zero problems with Sutton refereeing our game.
"From what I saw on the weekend, there wasn't a lot wrong with what he did and I think it has gotten out of control.
"It all points to the leadership of the NRL. The way they have positioned this game as a 'demotion', that comes from leadership.
"I feel sorry for them, we all make mistakes and I think we just have to get in with it."
The Warriors head into this weekend's match as firm favourites, having won 14 of their past 15 games against the Gold Coast side.
Newshub.
Join us at 4pm Sunday for live updates of Warriors vs Titans NRL showdown.
