Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett is seething after the NRL conceded officials missed a crucial knock-on call late in Canberra’s golden-point win over the Dolphins.
With scores locked at 30-30, Canberra’s Hudson Young knocked the ball forward into the arm of Ray Stone, before the Raiders regained possession.
The Raiders were awarded set restart after officials pinged Kaufusi for knocking the ball forward, before Jamal Fogarty slotted the match-winning field goal four plays later.
The NRL’s head of football Graham Annesley said referee Peter Gough was obscured in his view of the knock on, but the sideline officials should have pulled the play up.
“I can understand how difficult this would have been in live to play for the officials to pick up. But the fact is, they did miss it,” Annesley said.
“As Hudson Young goes to take the ball, his fingers touch the ball, and then it comes off the upper arm of Stone.
“I wish we could change that decision so the outcome is determined entirely by the players.
“It’s disappointing for us when there is a decision made by an official that brings into question the outcome of the game.”
Bennett was angry with the decision and Annesley’s reaction did little to soothe him.
“I think anyone who knows rugby league knew he knocked that ball on,” Bennett told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“That’s why the players reacted straight away on the field.
“You’re 30-all, you’re in overtime – it’s crucial. The games are so toughly fought, it’s disappointing stuff. We saw it from the coach’s box it was a knock-on. The video ref could have quickly told him.
“The hollow part about all this is it’s zero consolation today. That’s the part that pisses me off more than anything else, it’s the fact I have to suck it up and live with it.”
Play was stopped two tackles after the missed knock-on for a concussion check on Stone, but there was no scope for the bunker to go back and review the error.
Video officials are only able to review action after the play-the-ball on point-scoring plays, unless it is a reportable act of foul play.
Asked whether there should be more ability for the bunker to check decisions in golden point, Annesley said that could not be considered until season’s end.
“If you’re trying to get decisions right, there has to be a line in the sand about how far you can go back,” Annesley said.
“Policy can change, but our policy wouldn’t normally be reviewed until the end of the season.
“They are matters the commission would have to consider. There is a trade-off in these things, there would be a trade-off in the continuity of play.”
The NRL also spent Monday reviewing South Sydney’s interchange bungle in their win over Brisbane on Friday night.
It is likely the Rabbitohs will be handed a fine for having 14 men on the field for 15 seconds during the 32-6 win.
Teams have previously been docked points in close matches for interchange breaches, with Canterbury the most recent in 2009.
But Annesley said blanket punishments were not the answer.
“I don’t think there ever can be a blanket rule for anything in a game like ours,” Annesley said.
“There are so many circumstances, so many degrees of seriousness.
“There was a report on the weekend (about the Canterbury breach) that resulted directly in the outcome of the game with a player that shouldn’t have been on the field.
“That’s very different to another scenario where a player might not have any impact by being on the field for a short period of time.”
Manly players insist Josh Schuster is not a spent force at Brookvale, adamant a training-ground bust-up is already history and that the Samoa international can regain his fitness in the No.6 jersey.
Schuster will remain sidelined for Friday night’s clash with Brisbane for “reconditioning”, after an unhappy return last month from calf and quad injuries.
Seen as one of the shining lights of Manly’s future, Schuster has struggled to string consecutive games together in recent years amid a run of soft-tissue injuries.
He was then embroiled in further drama over the weekend, after it emerged he was involved in a scrap with reserve grader Dean Matterson.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
The pair needed to be separated by prop Josh Aloiai, after a light-hearted exchange between Schuster and the brother of Eels’ backrower Ryan Matterson turned serious.
Aloiai was insistent on Monday the issue had been blown out of proportion and had already subsided, and that there was no risk of a split in the Sea Eagles camp.
“It’s something that happens pretty often,” Aloiai said. “A lot of the time there are not people there to report on it. The more people that talk about it, the bigger it gets. They add GST like the ATO (Australian Tax Office).
“When you get 35 highly competitive men in an environment for 40 hours a week, things boil over sometimes. I have been involved in little bits and pieces; most people have. You usually laugh about it and tease each other about it after.
“That’s already what’s happening. Don’t try and disconnect us, we’re all good.”
Schuster’s fitness is a bigger issue for Manly. The 21-year-old has already shown enough to prove that if Manly are to be genuine contenders, they need him firing at five-eighth.
But he has not been able to deliver there consistently, and has regularly been challenged by halves partner Daly Cherry-Evans to take charge of his own career.
Schuster was also targeted by Kristie Fulton on social media on Monday, with Manly’s former pathways boss posting on social media he needed to “grow up” and “control his diet”.
The playmaker has close links with the Fulton family, having been brought to Manly by late club great Bob Fulton, whose children Kristie and Scott were instrumental in the pathways system set up for aspiring players from western Sydney.
“He’ll be alright, it’s a lot of noise,” Aloiai, who is close with Schuster, said.
“It’s a lot to take on for a young kid. But that brings out the best in him sometimes, a little bit of pressure.
“There is a real clear plan about how we want to get him back to his best at the moment.
“As a young kid he couldn’t have more people that really care about him and are supporting him.
“That is the most positive thing – there is a plan. And very soon we will have Josh at his best because we really need him.”
South Sydney bash brothers Tevita Tatola and Thomas Burgess have reunited in time to return serve against Melbourne in the NRL’s Magic Round.
The pair were used by coach Jason Demetriou as pinch-hitters off the bench to pulverise Brisbane in Friday’s big win for the Rabbitohs, both running close to 200 metres through the middle of Suncorp Stadium.
It was South Sydney’s fourth win in a row, following a gutsy defeat of Penrith and blow-outs of the Dolphins and Canterbury.
Tatola (knee) missed his side’s tight, tough loss to the Storm in round five and is delighted to be back in the fray for the rematch in Brisbane on Saturday night.
“We’ll have to be on against Storm,” Tatola, who’s been limited to four games this season, said. “They’ve always got a strong pack, whether it’s big Nelson (Asofa-Solomona) and Christian Welch.
“Tommy (Burgess) is just a workhorse for us … it’ll be a good battle in the middle and (we’re) looking forward to taking it to them.
“I felt good off the bench. Been in, been out, just wanted to play well and get through.
“His (Demetriou’s bench) rotations are always on point. We trust what he does, just go with whatever he needs us to do.”
The Rabbitohs-Storm clash will headline Saturday’s sold-out action at Suncorp Stadium, with the teams equal on points just one win behind ladder-leaders Brisbane.
© AAP
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