Paul Kent

So the NRL had said in a statement.

So the interesting thing is now it's caused, as you would expect, moral outrage across social media.

And everybody that's got a complaint about a referee has now pointed to Ashley Klein and said this is what – wild accusations, all the rest of it.

And he –

There's come under a lot of pressure, essentially, to be stood down from State of Origin 2, which he's going to officiate on Wednesday night.

The fact is, he has not been accused of betting on rugby league games.

He's not admitted to betting on rugby league games.

And the NRL investigation says he has never bet on NRL games.

And for that reason, they've got no reason to sit him down Wednesday night.

I tend to agree with it, okay?

I know it's an unpopular call.

I know a lot of fans are using their outrage to this as evidence.

There's no evidence, but they're pretending it's evidence.

The accusation to them is enough evidence that he should be stood down, that he shouldn't be allowed to referee certain games.

The fact is there's no evidence supporting the claims that he's ever been on rugby league, but it is a bad look for the game.

Yeah.

And in 2019, Nick Weeks was the head of the integrity unit, which, you know, as everybody who watches this knows, I have a huge problem with the integrity unit.

It's a propaganda unit as far as I'm concerned.

And Todd Greenberg was the boss of the NRL.

There's been a lot more from the NRL, a lot more focus put on that period than in 2023 when the people running the NRL were Andrew Abdo and Peter Vlandys.