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Ricky Stuart says Gold Coast coach Des Hasler is “on another planet” after the Titans boss blasted the refereeing in his side’s golden point loss to Canberra.
Raiders halfback Jamal Fogarty spared his team’s blushes, slotting a 90th-minute field goal after they conceded two tries in the last four minutes of normal time to squander a 10-point advantage.
But Hasler criticised referee Kasey Badger and said her performance was “pretty poor” after his team conceded five penalties to three, and gave away eight set restarts to the Raiders’ one.
He also questioned probably the game’s most decisive play, suggesting Canberra’s teenage debutant Chevy Stewart was offside when he blocked Titan Kieran Foran’s close-range field-goal attempt.
Stuart fired back and accused the Titans of “cheating” by wrestling his players for extended periods while they attempted to play the ball, suggesting they could have received “another 10 or 12” set restarts.
“If he’s critical of the six-agains and the penalties, he’s on another planet,” Stuart said.
“He coached well … but the way they cheated when they were standing there with their hand on the ball … the way they cheated on the ground. I feel sorry for Kasey the way they were in her face all night. She had to withstand a lot of pressure.
“I’m gonna be making sure I ring (referees boss) Jared (Maxwell) to find out who’s right or wrong here, because I thought Kasey, under pressure, she did a really good job.”
Hasler, who joked he’d be fined $25,000 for his rant, viewed replays of Stewart’s charge-down before his press conference and said he was around one metre offside.
“Did they review it? They didn’t review it. So why not?” he queried. “So from that point of view, it was heartbreaking.
“The refereeing performance was pretty poor … 10 six-agains to one, some of those are warranted … some of them just leave us battling field position the whole time.
“Possession ends up 60-40, sure, some of that’s our own fault but it’s difficult.”
Stuart, who began his retort saying “f*** me”, could be facing a fine for his language after previously being hit with a financial sanction for swearing in a press conference.
Canberra have claimed third spot on the NRL ladder after six rounds in the biggest surprise from the early part of the season after Fogarty booted them to victory at GIO Stadium on Sunday night.
It was a cruel end for Fogarty’s former club after Gold Coast forced extra time when winger Alofiana Khan-Pereira touched down in the left corner in the 80th minute and stopgap goalkicker Brian Kelly landed the sideline conversion.
The goal was the first of Kelly’s eight-year NRL career after regular kicker Jayden Campbell had been forced off with a leg injury.
But it was Fogarty who proved the difference with a sweetly struck one-pointer with just a few seconds left in the second period of extra time.
The Raiders improved their record to 4-2 and despite most pundits expecting them to fade in 2024 after Jack Wighton’s defection to Souths, the Ricky Stuart-coached side is silencing their critics. They were not in top gear against the Titans but the Green Machine did enough to consign their opponents to a fifth straight loss to start the year.
Gold Coast at least ended their nine-game run of conceding 28 points in a match, which was an unwanted first in premiership history.
Raiders fullback Chevy Stewart played strongly in his NRL debut, filling in for injured veteran Jordan Rapana, with several notable plays, including his chargedown of the Foran field goal in the 87th minute to deny the Titans victory.
Both teams started the match with a few scratchy errors before the Raiders broke the deadlock in the 18th minute when winger James Schiller slid over for a 6-0 lead.
Second-rower Hudson Young doubled the home side’s lead when he muscled his way over the stripe off an inside pass from Strange.
Gold Coast were staring down the barrel of another heavy defeat but they regrouped and halved the deficit just before half-time when prop Jaimin Jolliffe barged over from close range.
They were just two behind a few minutes into the second half when Harley Smith-Shields touched down against his former club when he cleaned up the crumbs after Canberra failed to clear a grubber in the in-goal area.
A Fogarty penalty goal gave Canberra a four-point buffer and the Titans looked set to grab the lead on the hour mark when Khan-Pereira backed up a long-range break to score out wide.
(Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
But the Bunker intervened after hooker Chris Randall was found to have stopped in the defensive line, impeding Canberra as the Titans surged upfield.
Schiller continued his impressive breakout season when he made it 20-10 in the 69th minute after he made the most of a botched Titans line drop-out.
Khan-Pereira put the Titans back in the contest with four minutes to go when he sped onto a Brian Kelly grubber before repeating the dose with another diving effort in the left corner with seconds on the clock to send the match into extra time.
Canberra second-rower Zac Hosking was in the wars throughout, departing for a HIA in the first half before returning, only to suffer a dislocated shoulder soon after.
with AAP
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