THE NRL will move a step closer to employing two referees for next season's matches when the concept is trialled in the National Youth Competition in coming months.

Whistleblowers were in the headlines again after Ben Cummins was struck in the head by a miniature foam football after Parramatta's controversial win over Penrith last Saturday. And last weekend's Sun-Herald players poll revealed 70 per cent of players felt the momentum of the game was slowed when video referees adjudicated on strips - and, more often than not, they reached the wrong decision anyway.

To help officials cope with the increased scrutiny and physical demands on match officials, an extra referee will be introduced in first grade in 2009 if NRL coaches deem the coming NYC trial a success.

The two-referee system had a mixed reaction from players and coaches during pre-season trials but the NRL is pressing on with the initiative to minimise errors and ease the physical workload on officials.

An independent review will soon finish collating data from the trials but the initial feedback is positive. The NYC trial is slated to begin two-thirds into the season.

"Two referees mean less physical demands on a referee but also another view," referees boss Robert Finch said.

"A lot of people watching at home would say 'why didn't he see that?' It's probably because it's come from a camera angle 180 degrees from where he was standing. [Another referee] allows another angle for us as well.

"There are more positives than negatives in having two referees.

"The demand on officials today, with heart rates and the like, are triathlete stuff.

"People don't understand they are running with their heart rates above 160 beats per minute for well over 50 per cent of the game. It's a massive effort to process information under that sort of physical pressure."

Cummins knows all about pressure after the ball-throwing incident at CUA Stadium.

"It was a bit eventful. It wasn't much to me, although there was a bit of fuss over it all," he said.

"I travelled the next day, so I didn't hear much about it. It was a pretty soft object. I was joking to the security guards to send the touchies in first as a decoy.

"The main thing is it wasn't something else. A bottle could have been more serious.

"At the time I just said 'make sure you get that bloke' because it doesn't send a good message to the kids out there, that sort of stuff."

Asked what he thought would be an appropriate punishment for the culprit, Cummins said he would leave the matter to the NRL.

"Obviously, catching the person who did it and putting on a penalty they feel will suffice will stop other people from doing it," he said.

Fellow official Steve Lyons added: "There's no place in the game for that type of stuff.

"I know supporters out there are fanatical and love their team - and maybe the person who threw it realised it was only a mini football and wasn't going to do any damage but still, it could have hit him in the eye and anything could have happened."

Last weekend video referee Graeme West took more than three minutes to award a try to Panthers captain Petero Civoniceva.

Finch explained the officials weren't always given the replays they requested, an issue the NRL is working through with broadcasters.

"Sometimes the replays sent to us aren't the ones we're looking for," Finch explained. "It looks like he's having a look at it again but he's already signed off on that and wants to go to something else. There's a bit of a process issue there."

However, Finch claimed 97 per cent of last year's video referee decisions were deemed correct and the figure was comparable this year. However, the former Dragons centre conceded it was taking too long to rule on strips.

"We need to do it quicker but it's like anything new, it takes time," he said. "Again, we are relying on the speed of the replay and the picture they deliver us. We are only allowed two replays and if they don't show evidence of a strip, we'll go with the existing decision.

There are teething issues and I think the process will get better as we move on."