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Ricky Stuart wants the NRL bunker to be stripped right back to only rule on contentious try decisions after crying foul over Matt Lodge taking a dive last week in the Warriors’ narrow win over Canberra.
Stuart said on Thursday that the bunker’s interference cost his team dearly and that the game would be better off without the video officials constantly getting involved.
Blues coach Brad Fittler and Immortal halfback Andrew Johns have also slammed the bunker for missing Lodge’s elbow against Canberra and then allowing the Warriors prop to get a penalty for an incident when he later admitted to faking being hurt.
The Warriors kicked a crucial late penalty goal to help get the game into extra time in what turned out to be a one-point win over the Raiders when Lodge lay down after a glancing blow from a Corey Horsburgh tackle.
“It’s hard to get over those losses when it’s taken away from you the way it was with some really poor bunker decisions, the effort’s there from the players,” Stuart said as he finalised preparations for Friday night’s home clash against Canterbury.
“I believe the bunker is damaging our game – I don’t believe we need the bunker because they can’t get it right.
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
“I really don’t understand how we can penalise Corey Horsburgh on that shot on Lodge where he’s even come out and said that he faked it.
“We all knew he faked it, everybody at the ground knew he faked it and yet we have a bunker doctor who wants to keep contributing into a game and yet he lay on the ground for a number of seconds after a so-called head shot and the bunker doctor didn’t even want to have any HIA protocol involved with it.
“I really believe the bunker is getting it so wrong we need to only have the bunker be involved in contentious tries.
“And even where we’ve got the referee coming back now and the goal-kicker has to wait and the bunker gets an extra 30 or 40 seconds to then want to review it, it’s just damaging the fabric and the way we want the game to be viewed.
“It’s annoying and it makes it more annoying when you lose games from it and the situation where we are where we need as many two points as we possibly can to have it taken away from us like that through a decision which I don’t know how he got wrong is really disappointing.”
Canberra have dropped to 14th place with a 2-6 record after last weekend’s loss and their hopes of returning to the finals this season are quickly fading away.
Stuart also took aim at the NRL judiciary Lodge raising his forearm while in possession and clocking Corey Harawira-Naera but avoiding suspension.
Fittler and Johns, on their Wide World of Sports podcast, also called on the NRL to scale back the bunker’s involvement.
“This is all on the bunker. The bunker’s the same one that allowed the earlier incident when he raised his arm which I thought was more than a penalty,” Fittler said on Freddy & The Eighth.
“If I’m in the bunker there’s just no way in the world in the name of gamesmanship am I ever getting that a penalty, it’s just not happening. It’s the bunker’s fault,” he added in reference to the Horsburgh tackle.
Andrew Johns added: “It is the over-influence of the bunker on the game. The referee’s out there, the touch judges are at the game, the bunker’s hundreds and hundreds of kilometres away, let the officials feel when they’re out there. Everyone could see it wasn’t a penalty, everyone in the crowd.”
Stuart said he had raised his concerns with NRL head of football Graham Annesley and referees’ boss Jared Maxwell. Bunker official Steve Chiddy was dropped for this weekend’s round after recommending the penalty to Lodge.
Stuart said skill level rather than effort was hurting his side as they try to break their form slump against the Bulldogs.
“It’s frustrating times and last weekend didn’t help that,” he said.
“The effort is there from the players … we’ve got to polish up a few parts of our game but you can’t do that if you haven’t got effort.
“It made it very hard for me as a coach last week to see how much it hurt all of us … it’s hard to get over those losses when it’s taken away from you the way it was with some really poor bunker decisions.”
With Friday’s Canberra’s ‘Forever Green’ match, where past players and coaches are invited back to the club, Stuart called on his players to take inspiration from how the club had battled through tough periods before.
“We’re going through some hard times at the moment and you remember those hard times … we support our mates and the camaraderie among us will pull us out of tough times, that’s what we’re banking on,” he said.
“Whether it’s tomorrow night or the week after, it’s just a matter of sticking together and working hard towards what we need to do.”
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