- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Gold Coast coach Jim Lenihan is fuming after the NRL admitted the Titans should have been awarded a penalty in front of the posts in the closing minutes of Parramatta’s 25-24 win over his side on Sunday night.
NRL head of football Graham Annesley conceded at his weekly football briefing on Monday that Eels forwards Ryan Matterson and Shaun Lane were both one metre offside when the ball cleared the ruck before Titans No.7 Tanah Boyd missed a 76th minute field goal attempt at CommBank Stadium.
“They are at least one metre over the goal line as the ball clears the ruck which places them offside,” Annesley said.
“There is no doubt that the touch judge on the near side should have called those players offside. When the ball was charged down by Lane the referee (Chris Butler) should have penalised him on the advice of the touch judge, but that advice didn’t come.”
Gold Coast would have taken a 26-25 lead with a successful penalty goal attempt.
The Titans lost 23-21 in golden point to the Dolphins the previous week when forward Erin Clark was penalised for the same offside infringement as Matterson and Lane’s. The Dolphins landed the penalty from in front and won the game.
(Photo by Brendon Thorne/Getty Images)
Lenihan said “it is certainly disappointing that we just can’t seem to get a call our way at the moment”.
“It is hard to swallow, really hard to swallow,” Lenihan told AAP.
“What can I do about it? They are certainly not going to give me two competition points which is what we are playing 80 minutes of football for.
“I am certainly not happy about this. We are working hard to be a club that won’t be bullied on the field or off the field.”
Lenihan said Eels prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard should also have been penalised a minute later when Boyd missed a second field goal from right in front.
“Campbell-Gillard was not square at marker and was told so by the referee on the mic,” Lenihan fumed.
“He still doesn’t blow a penalty, one minute after Eels players on the tryline leave early.
“They can’t find a penalty twice for us in the last four minutes but find one against us in golden point the week before.”
Annesley also reviewed the Campbell-Gillard incident and said it was “a little more subjective” after Butler called him offside. Campbell-Gillard ran five metres before aborting any attempt at charge down.
“If the player responds to the call more often than not the referee won’t take action,” Annesley said.
Lenihan did not agree there was anything subjective about it.
“It is not subjective when he is told he is not square and is offside. When he moves inside a 10 metre radius of the player (Boyd) the whistle has to be blown for a penalty,” he said.
“The same thing happened to us when (Titans winger) Phil Sami had one foot in front of the kicker but by the time the kick lands he is within a 10 metres and they blow a penalty against him.”
The Titans are four points outside the top eight and a win against the Eels would have been crucial to their finals hopes.
Lenihan said he had sent NRL referees boss Jared Maxwell an email on Monday morning and wanted to speak to him about Sunday night’s incidents and other recent calls that have gone against the Titans.
Wests Tigers forward John Bateman is adamant the club’s latest civil war won’t hinder their bid to avoid successive wooden spoons.
The Tigers’ status as the NRL’s most in-turmoil club took a new turn over the weekend when reports emerged of a feud between assistant coach Benji Marshall and recruitment boss Scott Fulton.
Marshall is being groomed to replace Tim Sheens as the club’s head coach in 2025 but it appears he and Fulton, who was parachuted in from Manly earlier this year, are already at loggerheads.
The Tigers are on the hunt for a new halfback after Luke Brooks agreed a deal with the Sea Eagles for next season, with Fulton and Marshall’s apparent inability to agree on a replacement threatening to boil over.
Aiden Sezer, Brodie Croft and Jack Cogger have all been tossed up as potential solutions to the club’s playmaking dilemma.
Aidan Sezer. (Photo by Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)
Fulton and Marshall were set to meet on Monday, but neither they nor Sheens – who doubles as the club’s head of football – spoke to the media.
Bateman stepped up to face the music in their absence and revealed the squad had got together and agreed they could not allow the off-field drama to consume them.
“That’s not my job. My job is on the field and we’re not doing our job,” Bateman said.
“The boys are pretty blase, you’ve got to be in this game. You can’t let stuff get to you.
“It’s not our job … I don’t get paid to do that, if I did I’d be sat behind a desk.
“We’ve got more to focus on than what they have, to be fair.”
The off-field distraction will do nothing to lift the pressure for the Tigers, who face their most important game of the season on Thursday when they travel to meet second-from-bottom St George Illawarra.
The match looms as pivotal in the shoot-out for the wooden spoon as the Tigers stare at back-to-back last-placed finishes.
“It’s pretty s**t, losing,” said Bateman, who styles himself as one of the NRL’s toughest competitors.
“I came here to win and you go through the dressing room and everybody else wants to win.
“I don’t care how we win, I just want to win.”
While the club bicker over their next No.7, one man whose place at the Tigers is no longer up in the air is forward Shawn Blore.
Blore, who previously captained the NSW State of Origin under-18s, was linked with a move to the Super League earlier this year but the 22-year-old has been told he is seen as part of the future at Wests Tigers.
“As soon as I saw (the rumours of a move) I went and had a conversation with Sheensy and Benji,” Blore said.
“They reassured me my place was at the Tigers. That’s all I needed to hear.”
With James Tedesco refreshed and recharged, Daniel Tupou is backing the Sydney Roosters skipper to be the catalyst for a late charge into the NRL’s top eight.
The Roosters suffered their 10th defeat of the season on Saturday when they lost 30-16 to Melbourne, leaving them 14th on the ladder – four points off the top eight.
Tedesco was given a week off by coach Trent Robinson after an arduous 18 months for the fullback, who has played 50 games for club, state and country in that time.
“I’m sure we’ll get a fresh Teddy,” winger Tupou said.
“Having a week off, which he definitely needed with his commitments and his schedule (will be a boost).
“We’re pretty stoked that he gets to get away and refresh the body and the mind. We’ll get him back and ready for this weekend for sure.”
(Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)
Tedesco has attracted some criticism for his form, as well as for holidaying in Byron Bay while his team was fighting to save their season.
But forward Nat Butcher said the Chooks No.1 had earned a refresh.
“We all got a week off (with the round-19 bye) and the way Origin is, Teddy didn’t get that time off,” Butcher said.
“That rest was probably deserved. We know Teddy is going to be primed and ready to go for the back end of the season.”
The Roosters have a tough run to round out their campaign, beginning with a trip to take on Gold Coast on Saturday followed by games against Brisbane, Manly, Parramatta and Souths.
Robinson conceded after the Storm loss that his side were facing an uphill battle with just seven games left.
Only Wests Tigers have a worse attack than the Roosters, but Tupou is adamant they can rewrite the script and finish the year with a bang. “We’ve just got to make plays and finish those moments,” Tupou said. “We still have belief in ourselves.”
© AAP
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.