Canberra coach David Furner has told his players they can’t afford to dwell on Saturday’s loss to Melbourne despite their objections over the officiating of the match being vindicated by the axing of a video referee.
Phil Cooley was dumped from official NRL duties this week fo mistakenly allowing the Storm a try in their 24-19 season-opening win over the Raiders in Canberra.
Referees chief Bill Harrigan says he had no choice but to sack Cooley following his howler.
“You have to be accountable when it’s black and white that you have a ruling error – it’s unacceptable,” Harrigan told AAP.
Cooley paid the price for ruling that Storm prop Bryan Norrie was onside in the build-up to Cooper Cronk’s early first-half try and will be rubbed out of this weekend’s round-two fixtures.
Match referees Gavin Badger and Brett Suttor were spared despite Canberra’s objections to a Josh McCrone pass to Blake Ferguson that was ruled forward and would have given the Raiders an all-important lead heading into halftime.
Both decisions drew the ire of Furner after the match but, on Tuesday, he said the Raiders were moving on from the two competition points that were lost.
He said he raised his concerns with NRL refereeing officials in their weekly briefing and hoped that’s where it would be left.
“I’ve gone through the necessary processes there,” Furner said.
“I’ve got a response on those tries and I said to the boys today, let me worry about talking to certain people involved – both the referees and the NRL.
“We need to turn around. We can’t get those two points back … you can put in your complaints, I’ve done that and we’ve just got to look forward to the Titans.
“I’ve made my complaints and I don’t want to linger.”
It wasn’t the only refereeing error the NRL has had to deal with in round one, with Jared Maxwell and touch judge Jason Walsh also stood down for another off-side blunder in the Cronulla-Wests Tigers match.
Five out of eight games in round one were decided by six points or less, and Furner predicted close matches would be a trend in 2012, so officials would have to be up for the challenge.
“This is probably going to be one of the toughest or closest competitions for many years,” he said.
“You’ve only got to look at Monday night’s game (between the Sydney Roosters and Souths) where you think you’d be home and hosed.”
The Raiders travel to the Gold Coast later this week for Saturday afternoon’s match against the Titans, which pits last season’s two lowest-placed teams.
But Furner said the impending battle was a much different prospect, with Gold Coast having spent up big in the off-season and the Raiders spoken of as finals contenders in 2012.
“It’s a new competition and it’ll be a different game, but we’re looking forward to the challenge,” he said.
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Things got a bit heated after the final whistle, with the Raiders securing a 24-20 win over the Bulldogs.
Viliame Kikau produced this horror blunder from dummy half with his opposite number Hudson Young scoring soon after up the other end.
Josh Papalii was sent for ten after this hip-drop tackle on Viliame Kikau. Fans were torn over just how bad it was. https://twitter.com/Fireupnrl/status/1791392199185514588
It all went downhill for the Raiders after leading 12-0. Jordan Rapana and Josh Papalii were sent to the bin.
It was a comedy of errors in the first half. Jordan Rapana took out his teammate Xavier Savage in this Bulldogs try.
