Bulldogs coach Trent Barrett has taken aim at the NRL Bunker and the Warriors' trainer after a critical no-try ruling went against his side in their 24-10 loss in Redcliffe on Sunday afternoon.
Trailing 22-10 in the second half, the Bulldogs picked up a loose ball after an Edward Kosi error and looked to have scored through Falakiko Manu but high contact from Sione Katoa on the winger right after the error drew a high tackle penalty, leaving the Canterbury hooker on report and the try disallowed.
"I thought we did get going [after half-time] and had the try that got us back in the game got taken off us for reasons I still don't know," Barrett said.
"That would have put us back to 22-16. The Warriors player makes an error, it wasn't a high tackle, it wasn't late and we get a try taken off us. I still can't work out why and I've had a look at it again.
"It didn't hit him in the head. He was going to make a tackle, simultaneous to him dropping the ball and we score and get it taken off us."
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Despite Barrett's protests, replays of the incident showed clear, direct and forceful contact from Katoa's shoulder to the jaw of Kosi, who stayed down and required attention before eventually playing on.
Katoa was arguably lucky to avoid going to the sin bin for that hit and another soon after which also led to him being placed on report.
Barrett instead accused the Warriors trainer of advising the winger to stay down.
Match Highlights: Warriors v Bulldogs
"It goes to a Bunker when their orange shirt [trainer] tells him to stay down," Barrett continued.
"That's frustrating because we did put ourselves back in the game and that would have put us right back in the game. They scored a try off a kick and two penalty goals in the second half," he added although it was only one penalty goal.
Barrett also expressed frustration at the 9-2 penalty count that went against his side.
Of the nine penalties, one was for a kick-off that sailed over the dead ball line, four were for clear high tackles and two were for obvious illegal strips in multi-person tackles.
The other was against Ryan James, who was pinged for a tackle on an airborne Chanel Harris-Tavita as the five-eighth took a clearing kick in what was deemed dangerous contact.
"It happened again at the start of the game, Ryan James, legitimate tackle on the kicker and he didn't hit him, he took him to ground, it was a full body tackle and Reece Walsh runs in and incites a melee and we get put on report for that and penalised for that which leads to a try," was Barrett's view of that incident.
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"He's got nothing to worry about Ryan James. He can't pull out of the tackle, it wasn't high, it wasn't dangerous but incited by – if the Warriors player doesn't come in and cause a melee nothing happens. They change games.
"We're not in a position where we can have them go against us. We can still do things a helluva lot better in certain areas but those ones kill you."
In addition to a nervous wait for the match review committee's charge sheet, Barrett also feared halfback Jake Averillo suffered a broken hand in the final minutes of the game while Jeremy Marshall-King may need to leave the team bubble for family reasons.
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"Jake Averillo gets hit there and has hurt himself, it looks like he's broken his hand in that contact. Nothing (happens). It's frustrating," Barrett said.
"We'll get a scan on Kyle and see how he is. I think Jeremy Marshall-King's wife's about to have a baby so we might be missing him as well but we'll get Luke Thompson back next week which will be handy. We'll see."
Barrett wasn't sure if James and his fellow Raiders loan player Corey Horsburgh would be available next week given Canberra's fresh concerns including a suspension for Corey Harawira-Naera.
"I'll talk to Sticky (Ricky Stuart) about that," Barrett said.
"They were good enough to help us out so if they wanted one of them back or needed both of them then that would work both ways for us but I'm not sure of their situation yet.
"They were both really good. They were two of our better players I thought. We had some good performances in there but our own worst enemies again.
"Just a bit of ill discipline, errors coming out of yardage in the first half, we had three of them, a couple of ill-disciplined penalties late in the count but still we were in a position to win the game but those ones are the most disappointing things. We'll cop the things we can control but those other ones are hard to take."