THE NRL is satisfied Penrith has adequate security in place at CUA Stadium despite being forced to investigate, for the second time this season, a fan throwing a projectile at someone on the field.
NRL chief operating officer Graham Annesley also refused to rule out banning for life the supporter who threw a mini football that bounced off the head of referee Ben Cummins as he walked off the ground following the Panthers' 26-18 loss to Parramatta on Saturday night.
Despite reports that police had apprehended the culprit and ejected him, Panthers officials yesterday said there was no record of a fan being escorted from the ground.
And they admitted it would be difficult to identify the person who threw the object because there was no CCTV footage of the incident.
It is the second time this season a fan at CUA Stadium has thrown a promotional rubber football at an official or player. One was hurled at Canberra fullback William Zillman as he dived over for a try in round two.
"You rely on the decency of people who attend a game to behave themselves," Annesley said. "We have security in place at all venues, and I don't think there is anything Penrith could do to stop this sort of behaviour.
"Unless you have a security guard standing next to every person, it's hard to stop any lunatic who wants to throw projectiles from doing so."
While Cummins laughed when struck by the mini football - which is soft and is being handed out at Penrith games this season - Panthers coach Matt Elliott called for the renegade fan to be banned for life should they be caught.
"We're not going to put a time limit on it," Annesley said. "But if we catch the person responsible, they can expect to not be watching a game live for a very, very long time."
Penrith general manager Mick Leary yesterday called on the thrower to come forward.
"No one's been identified as throwing any objects, so at the moment we're virtually at a dead end in trying to find who threw the object," Leary told AAP. "The only way we could do anything was if anybody wanted to confess or someone came forward to say they know who did it."
Elliott was critical of Cummins after the game for denying his side two tries, but referees boss Robert Finch yesterday defended his performance.
