Bulldogs coach Dean Pay wasn’t thrilled with the refereeing in his side’s loss to the Brisbane Broncos.
Working alongside Ben Cummins, the match saw Belinda Sharpe become the first female to referee an NRL game.
The Bulldogs were put to the sword by 22 points as they conceded five tries and failed to score in the second half.
However, while stressing it wasn’t an excuse for his side’s poor display, Pay slammed the lopsided penalty count which has been a trend for the Bulldogs’ season.
The Bulldogs conceded seven penalties compared to the Broncos’ three.
Pay also blasted the decision to award Broncos winger Corey Oates a penalty try in the final minutes.
Forty Twenty
Roar Rookie
Sometimes the coaches have a point but the penalty try was consistent with other rulings and it's clear the Oates would get to the ball first. The most likely result is that Oates then scores a try , second most likely that he knocks on, third most likely he misses the ball and way , way down the list is the idea that a Bulldog gets there first and prevents a try. Easy decision.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
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Flexis
Roar Rookie
Also a case of the “better” teams being “good” at conceding penalties. Particularly in the red zone. The doggies just dont have that polished. Which is unfortunately for Payne (and the game itself) a coaching issue.
TezzaPel
Roar Rookie
I find it difficult to comprehend that so many coaches have this stupid concept that penalty counts should somehow be even. If you are being beaten, and falling behind in most of the other stat categories, it stands to reason that you will concede more penalties than your opposition. I await eagerly the day a coach states that he/she was outcoached!
Flexis
Roar Rookie
The two lift the foot penalties before the first penalty goal were next level blatant and obvious and set a tone. Not gonna win many penalty counts playing like that. At least try and hide your intentions a bit.
BA Sports
Roar Guru
Yep. When your team is clearly instructed to be happy to give away penalties in the defensive 20m (because you give up tries every second set of six in the "red zone") you can't complain. It was only the second or third penalty of the night; But the deliberate leg pull by Jackson 2m out from the try line in the first half - if they had put him in the bin for that I would have been okay with it. So clearly a deliberate attempt to slow down the attack. BTW, you can't whinge about penalty counts then say "its not an excuse". You are clearly making it an excuse. I want to root for Dean Pay, but he makes it hard sometimes.
Rob
Guest
Spot on Emcie. The Bulldogs are struggling and they are pushing the envelope to stay in the contest. There seems to be this bizarre theory that both team should get the same amount of penalties even if they are constantly breaking the rules. For the record that Penalty try was the first one I felt personally comfortable, when compared to several others that have been awarded. Oats was deliberately brought down from behind and the ball was definitely in the in goal area not going over the dead ball line.
Emcie
Roar Guru
Not sure penalties were the issue mate.... Might have been the 56 linebreaks conceeded, or the 400 extra metres off just 17 more runs, or perhaps the half century of missed tackles? The score could've been 36 to 6 if brisbane converted their trys, or much worse if they ran the ball instead of taking the 2 when your team was happy to conceed penalties on their own gaol line...