Andrew Johns stayed silent for the final 23 minutes of the call of the Wests Tigers’ golden-point thriller in protest at prop Fonua Pole being sent to the sin bin for a high tackle.

Just hours after he had slammed the dramatic rise in the use of the sin bin for high tackles as “absolutely farcical”, Johns was left gobsmacked when Pole was sent to the bin for a tackle on Cronulla’s Tom Hazelton.

Pole was given a timeout in the 64th minute, making him the 18th player sent to the bin over the weekend.

When replays of the Tigers front-rower’s shot on Hazelton were shown on the Nine coverage, Johns said: “Don’t tell me, that’s it?”

Johns chose to remain silent for the rest of the game, offering only a short response to caller Matt Thompson when asked a question in golden point.

Sources with knowledge of the situation not authorised to speak publicly later confirmed it was not the first time Johns had downed the microphone after being annoyed by something he is passionate about during a game.

Nine, owners of this masthead, refused to comment.

The same sources confirmed Johns called ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys on Monday morning to share his frustrations. V’landys regularly seeks advice from Johns on matters relating to the game.

Johns, who remained in the Leichhardt Oval box for the Tigers’ 20-18 win on Sunday, could not be contacted for comment.

Before the game on Sunday, Johns spoke of his frustration after a weekend in which a raft of players had been sent to the bin for high tackles.

“The breakdown of this sending players to the bin is absolutely farcical,” he told Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.

“It’s gone beyond a joke. It is embarrassing. The over analysis and the overreach of the bunker in play ... the bunker should be used only for try-scoring opportunities unless it’s a send-off.”

NRL CEO Andrew Abdo on Monday confirmed the bunker needed to scale back its game-day involvement, while placing part of the blame on players for the dramatic rise in sin-bins and penalties.

Abdo said the bunker had become too involved and there had been a “slight overreaction” after several incidents were missed earlier this season.

The NRL boss said one factor that could not be overlooked was the number of high tackles across the opening eight rounds, which was up from 201 last season to 379 this year.

Abdo did not expect a similar number of players being marched during Magic Round this weekend.

“There’s been no crackdown, and there’s been no policy change,” Abdo told Mark Levy on radio station 2GB.

“A couple of weeks ago we had a round where the refs missed a few high tackles that should have been sin-binned.

“We communicated through the clubs saying, ‘That’s not the standard, the standard is what is has always been – it’s been consistent the last couple of seasons’.

“What we’ve seen now is a slight overreaction the other way, which is unfortunate. I get the frustration around the bunker intervening in play. That’s certainly not something any of us want to see.

“We’ve had some terrific football, but we’ve also seen a huge increase in the number of high tackles this season.

“Last year up until round eight, we had 200 high tackles. Now we’ve had 379. With that is going to come an increase in penalties and sin-bins.

“We’re also calling on the players and clubs to be more disciplined, and always think about player safety as part of how they prepare for a game.

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“I think there has been too much intervention. The bunker is meant to intervene if there is a serious act of foul play or there’s a howler. We don’t want the howlers missed. But there has been too much intervention.”

Abdo later told this masthead: “It’s a collective responsibility. It’s a fast game, it’s an insane game, and we want to make it, as far as possible, a safe game. The onus is on all of us to protect players. In this particular case, the focus has been on ensuring we reduce, as far as possible, head-high tackles.

As for what fans could expect at Magic Round, Abdo said: “Hopefully we will see plenty of good games and great football. We don’t want to see any penalties for high tackles or any sin bins. But the policy will remain the same. If there is direct forceful contact [to the head] with no mitigation, there’s a risk the player will be sent to the bin and charged by the match-review committee.

“That’s always been the case. What we don’t want to see is too much intervention, and taking the play back if it’s missed live. It will be reserved for serious acts of foul play.”

Sources with knowledge of the situation not authorised to speak publicly confirmed the bunker should never have intervened in the Pole incident that so enraged Andrew Johns.

The bunker official told referee Grant Atkins to bin Pole after play had already stopped. The sources said there were two other incidents the bunker should not have got involved in – one involving Dolphins playmaker Kodi Nikorima and the other Brisbane’s Deine Mariner.

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