Contentious points in the grand final

[RookieDog]

The fact that there has been over a month of outright accusations of cheating by the Bulldogs played out in the media doesn't help the situation either. Over the run home to the finals we've had:
1. Barba sweep play being labelled obstruction, leading to a change in the interpretation of the rule. This is thenS SAME play Manly have used for at least the past 4 seasons without a peep from anyone.
2. Before the Many semi final the press was on about how we interfere and slow down the ruck.
3. After the Manly Semi Final the press was on about how we are constantly offside.
4. The week of the GF the press come out and highlight the reason for our defensive prowess is because we split our markers.

Then there is the Bulldogs miracle. When teams play against us they become perfect, and never "sin" in the ruck, or stand offside etc. so much so that we have lost the penalty counts in 90% of our matches. I don't get it.
Never have I seen such an orchestrated attempt to blatantly influence how referees view one team as I have this year with the Dogs being played out in the media. Laurie Daley, Gordon Tallis, Roy Masters, Jason Taylor all lined up for their pot shots.....and you cannot help but feel that they got their way, and every 50-50 call went one way in the GF, and the PF and in the QF!

Congrats Dogs on a great season! You sure are one tough side!

Well said mate. Agree with all of it.

 

[obje]

News LTD owns NRL, owns Melbourne, owns the Broncos, owns Fox Sports, owns the news papers.

They own the journalists, they tell them to jump, they say how high? They tell them to bag the bulldogs, it gets done. They own the referees, their salary is paid by News LTD, the same people who pay the Melbourne Storm.

Biggest conflict of interest, but who's gonna say anything? Nobody.

Channel 9 Footy show can't say anything, they're paid and owned by News LTD.

Players can't say anything, NRL's owned by News LTD.

Journalists can't say anything, they're owned by News LTD.

You cannot expect a fair game when the owner of the game owns teams in the game. News LTD controls the game by virtue of the referees and the media and the commission, they make and apply rules at their own discretion.

If the Storm or the Broncos benefit, News LTD benefits. If those teams lose, News LTD loses.

How can that not be a natural conflict of interest. They have too much sway over the game to have any dogs in the fight.

 

[bite man]

''the 2 most over rated players ive ever watch play footy, big fat and i mean fat kassio and pritchard ,, fecken useless ! please des wake up and get rid of the both looser's ... to slow and to lazy.. look at the storm forwards big lean and strong look at ours ''fat over weight and slow we had no chance ,, i wouldnt pay them 2 bob to play ... god help us next year if these two take the field .. did keating play did he touch the ball ? urgent need new talented half back..

 

[DOGG STIEL]

The Dogs should have had a penalty when Slater jumped on top of Morris to punch the ball away, could have even been a penalty try. Also the Storm continuously played the ball off the mark by moving forward whilst getting up off the ground, they must have done this 15-20 times and the ref just let them get away with this.

I took my brother to the GF, he hadn't been to the footy for yrs as he was sick of the. Dodgy refereeing. He was spewing on Sunday night and once again said he won't be returning to watch any games. Very disappointing

 

[DOGG STIEL]

''the 2 most over rated players ive ever watch play footy, big fat and i mean fat kassio and pritchard ,, fecken useless ! please des wake up and get rid of the both looser's ... to slow and to lazy.. look at the storm forwards big lean and strong look at ours ''fat over weight and slow we had no chance ,, i wouldnt pay them 2 bob to play ... god help us next year if these two take the field .. did keating play did he touch the ball ? urgent need new talented half back..

Kasiano was names Daly M prop of the year and has just been named in the NZ test team

 

[magdog]

The Dogs should have had a penalty when Slater jumped on top of Morris to punch the ball away, could have even been a penalty try.

Nah mate.
Billy TEFLON Slater, can do no wrong .....ever !

 

[TONGA12]

The Thing that people dont understand is that all these calls leads to too much defence that leads to errors fatigue and finally brain dead in attack . We did well
All year with this **** but very hard in the GF with no experience

 

[TONGA12]

News limited cost us the game before it even started.

 

[Pom_81]

Melbourne did play better than us on the day. But one thing that pissed me off big time was when Archer said after the first or second penalty to Melbourne "I want a quick game'. He said that to Ennis. That's a fair point in itself. But then why were Melbourne consistently allowed to lie all over the ruck, and have lazy runners getting back onside? It goes both ways. I don't mind us being penalised for slowing the ruck down, but Melbourne should be as well. They weren't.

Melbourne were the better side. Cronk's kicking game simply killed us and we has no answer.

You're right, though, about the refereeing. In any sport, the worst trait in officiating is setting standards early in a game, then failing to keep to them. They were super strict on holding down in the first 20 mins, then got looser and looser in the interpretation as the game went on. In the final 20 mins, some of the ruck speed allowed was horrific. I doubt it has any impact on the outcome, but big game referees should know better than crap like that.

 

[TONGA12]

They why was matt prior allowed to pass of the floor last year when we played the dragons .and in that case mick ennis should have been awarded a try against manly three weeks ago

 

[TONGA12]

Kicking killed us because refs and holding down and being off side gave him room

 

[The DoggFather]

At the end of the day, this is how the NRL said "sorry for the media pressure making us take your titles away" to the News Ltd Storm. Doesn't matter who was their opponent, Storm weren't losing that day

 

[Qld-Dog]

Slater did not deliberately knee Perret, I know this is not what you want to hear but it did not happen!!!

 

[Qld-Dog]

Melbourne did play better than us on the day. But one thing that pissed me off big time was when Archer said after the first or second penalty to Melbourne "I want a quick game'. He said that to Ennis. That's a fair point in itself. But then why were Melbourne consistently allowed to lie all over the ruck, and have lazy runners getting back onside? It goes both ways. I don't mind us being penalised for slowing the ruck down, but Melbourne should be as well. They weren't.

100% correct!!!

 

[Malla]

Even that first try to Melbourne came off the back of a bad refereeing decision. Archer had no interest in referring it upstairs. Would have been a benefit of the doubt decision and try to Barba IMO.

 

[steve_mortimer]

Whilst I can understand the frustration over some calls in the match perhaps the fact the better team won might have something to do with it?

Should we remember the knock on before the first Melbourne try? And their second and third tries also came off Canterbury drop balls.

It was never an 8 point try for the Dogs. The boys also missed a lot of tackles and had a VERY poor completion rate. Many 5th tackle options were poor as well. The bounce of the ball just did not go our way.

 

[steve_mortimer]

Even that first try to Melbourne came off the back of a bad refereeing decision. Archer had no interest in referring it upstairs. Would have been a benefit of the doubt decision and try to Barba IMO.

That was a knock on for your life. Ball knocked forward into a Melbourne hand. Correct call was made.

Also the tackle on Morris in the 29th minute was a loose carry. The Melbourne player was making a tackle and not making a play at the ball. Then at the end of the following set Reynolds runs down field and drops the ball. From the ensuing penalty, which was a fair penalty Canterbury had a poor defensive read which led to the Slater try.

 

[Pink Pikachu]

Melbourne outplayed the Bulldogs right across the park and deserved to win, it's as simple as that.

I actually thought the refs had a pretty good game, and most people that aren't wearing blue and white glasses seem to agree...

Funny how the original post didnt mention the blatant wrong call by the referee's to give the Bulldogs a scrum feed right in the Storm's red zone after an incorrect rule that the Storm player had touched the ball which was actually batted backwards by a Bulldog... But alas the Bulldogs were'nt good enough to score off that chance.

Bad calls will be made and are made, but there was nothing that changed this game, the better team won, as is usually the case... If Cameron Smith could kick then the scoreline wouldnt have even been close.

 

[The DoggFather]

Bad calls will be made and are made, but there was nothing that changed this game, the better team won, as is usually the case... If Cameron Smith could kick then the scoreline wouldnt have even been close.

Strange enough the score would of be a reverse of the Mackay game

 

[S4Sonny]

Strange enough the score would of be a reverse of the Mackay game

Not to also mention the try that went begging, nearly would have been a similar effort to the Barba/Morris try at Mackay!