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NRL head of football Graham Annesley says there are reasons battling teams struggle to win penalties or set-restart counts, and it's not on referees.

Graham Annesley has angrily refuted claims that the NRL's lower-ranked clubs are treated poorly by referees and never get the rub of the green.

Officiating has been back in the spotlight from round one this year, when Gold Coast coach Justin Holbrook claimed his side did not get the favourable calls big clubs did.

North Queensland counterpart Todd Payten also made the same claims after his team's round-five loss to the Sydney Roosters, amid regular debate from former players in media.

But in an unprompted eight-and-a-half minute monologue at Tuesday's weekly media briefing, Annesley made clear there was no proof of bias from NRL officials.

Instead, he argued that poorly performing teams were often penalised more than opponents and at times deliberately slowed both the game and ruck.

"The teams at the top end of the ladder ... they control the ball. They spend long periods of time in possession," NRL head of football Annesley said.

"The teams at the other end of the ladder, they're spending much more time defending.

"You're much more likely to concede offences when you're defending.

"You'll be offside more, you'll be committing offences in the ruck. You'll frankly be trying to slow the ruck down.

"We all know that that's a tactic in our game to try and slow the good sides down.

"So these things do become a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy."

Annesley also argued officials did not have time to consider matters like penalty counts or ladder position when making rulings, and that there was never a pre-conceived bias.

"I just wanted to be very clear here: the process that the match officials go through ... in making any decision is based entirely on what they see," Annesley said.

Meanwhile ,Annesley defended a decision not to hand Newcastle a crucial late penalty for offside in their loss to St George Illawarra from the penultimate kick-off, claiming it was line-ball call.

But he did state there had been bunker inconsistencies in the Roosters' win over the Warriors.

Annesley was unimpressed the Roosters were handed a ruck penalty late in the game while the Warriors were denied one for a similar infringement earlier.

Both decisions were made by the bunker after a captain's challenge when knock-ons were called on-field.