Contentious points in the grand final

[Earthquake]

Week after week we same to get the same awful refereeing decisions, the terrible penalty count. After spending good money to go and see a poorly refereed game I decided to re-watch the game and make a list of contentious points that could have helped us win the match or at least given us a fairer go.

11:21 Dominant tackle by Tolman not rewarded. Penalised. Tony Archer refuses to listen to captain Ennis.
12:28 Reasonable 3 second (remember the amount of seconds for later on) dominant tackle by Inu labelled as "too slow". Another dubious penalty to Melbourne.
14:55 Pritchard's arm bounces off Cameron Smith's arm, ball and accidentally touches Smith's face. Yet another penalty to Melbourne. Smith misses penalty goal.
18:27 Bromwich strangles Eastwood in a tackle. No penalty
19:53 Prochter takes Graham with a swinging arm to the head. No penalty
23:40 Canterbury get a penalty. Storm inside the 10. After all, Melbourne had been playing perfect until then!
24:57 Slater deliberately knees Perrett as Perrett scores a try. No penalty.
28:14 Lowrie strips the ball from Morris which then goes over the sideline, it is ruled a knock on from Canterbury.
30:15 Widdop interferes in tackle, Perrett attempts to push him off and gets penalised. Melbourne should have been penalised for interfering in the ruck.
31:23 This leads directly to a try by Slater. Canterbury should have had the ball at this point.
45:02 6 second tackle from Slater on Morris unpenalised on 4th tackle.
50:15 6 second tackle from O'Neill on Inu unpenalised on 2nd tackle.
50:39 Hoffman knocks the ball out of Stagg's hand. Ruled knock on. Melbourne scrum.
51:40 O'Neill deliberately holds on Kasiano's leg as Kasiano is attempting to get off the tackled O'Neill. Penalty to Melbourne! Smith misses the penalty goal, a moral victory of sorts.
58:04 High tackle on Perrett by Widdop unpenalised on 1st tackle.
60:57 Pritchard taken out without the ball by Cronk on 3rd tackle. No penalty.
71:10 Offside defender Hoffman impedes Reynolds' run on 2nd tackle. No penalty.
71:49 5 second tackle from Widdop on Reynolds unpenalised on 5th tackle.

 

[Trendsetter]

You missed smith holding onto ennis's leg as he was getting up to play the ball. Good thing ennis didn't react, smith would have happily taken a little dive there.. Penalty to Melb even though it was blatantly obvious that time.

 

[bleedblue&white]

mate have to agree totaly. I dont give a **** if it sounds like sour grapes but after forking out over $1000 in airfares, $250 per ticket, hotel costs etc I think I am entitled to be pretty pissed off! Yes melbourne were great defensively and our some of our ball handling was poor but we were never even given a ****ing chance, from the moment tolman smashed that storm forward and they were given the penalty I knew the game was rigged. Every single bull**** call went against us. What about when benny fielded the ball was on the ground tackled then they picked him up and put him over the sideline WHY? no penalty if that was ennis going over the tryline like say against manly it would be a double movement! ABSOLUTE CRAP! and I wont be waisting my time and money untill the NRL sort out this farce that is their officals

 

[Mr Invisible]

All I want, is consistency. If you hit one team for laying on the player or being offside, ref the other team the same way.

If we can see on a broadcast a team offside, or a strip in the tackle, how can't a video ref quickly let the ref onfield know about the incident?
If players all have GPS trackers in their jerseys hooked up to software on laptops (like Des does), then why can't the NRL tap into those feeds from both sides, have the refs on GPS as well, and easily determine if a player is in front of a ref. It's not rocket science!

It seems these days those at home see more things that SHOULD be officiated than the refs do, and that's a real burden on the game.

But hey, with rumours of Bellamy off to Warriors, and News Limited and NRL owing him a premiership due to the salary cap scandal (where all involved should have had contracts cancelled and been excluded from the game for 3 years) nothing suprises me.

Bellamy has a long and tainted history of dirty tactics with the NRL. Cannonball, Crusher, Chicken Wing tackles, pulling / working the leg, using the forearm in a players head in the tackle, all the work of mastercoach Bellamy.

It's not sour grapes, I just want a consistent and fair effort by the refs. There is FAR too big a difference between rulings given by refs to some sides over others. It's ruining the game.

 

[Sandra's Bollocks]

What about when benny fielded the ball was on the ground tackled then they picked him up and put him over the sideline WHY? no penalty

i dont think his arm nor the ball touched the ground hence he wasn't tackled. but id have to see the footage again to make sure.

 

[Silvertail]

Yes,as a Manly fan, I would have to say that refs were fairly tough on the Dogs ... But the semis were played with a short 10 metres, favouring defence over attack. Even Manly's halves struggled with a short 10 metres. Grand final was a lottery with a few moments of magic from Cronk and Slater sealing the game ... Moments of magic that your halves could not deliver.

 

[Earthquake]

What about when benny fielded the ball was on the ground tackled then they picked him up and put him over the sideline WHY? no penalty if that was ennis going over the tryline like say against manly it would be a double movement! ABSOLUTE CRAP! and I wont be waisting my time and money untill the NRL sort out this farce that is their officals

I checked out that particular play about 5 times and the ruling was correct - Barba hadn't grounded the ball so therefore technically the tackle was still in play until either the referee called "held" (which they obviously weren't going to) or the ball was grounded. But it was one of those days where everything seemed to go against us...

 

[dog pound]

I agree there were alot of calls that didn't go our way!!
defensively We were good but they can only much against a team that was going to win either way!!! The Storms needed that premiership!!

 

[Chicharito]

At the end of the day we werent good enough and we cant use the count as an excuse especially in a GF....we simply werent hungry enough and we steered away from what we do best as a unit...we were going one out way too much and when you decide to play like this against melbourne they will easily dominate the ruck...all we had to do was look at the film from the game we played in mackay and build that sort of game plan.

Can't take away anything from melbourne, at the end of the day they were clincal and the experience definitely paid off for them....but i'm confident our boys will be much better off for this experience and come out firing next year

 

[loui323]

Dude. I dont usually get involved in these types of topics... But i have to throw my 5¢ in..
1.barba was held.
2.slater pushed morris morris as he pushed the ball forward.
3.I thinks when jonathan wright pushed the ball back in, how can the video ref call the ball going forward.. I though video refs cant call forwards.
4.and someone explain to why the dogs were giving the storm 12 metres and the storm were getting back only 8 metres.
5. And as captain mick ennis was treated like $hit from the refs.. He is entitled to be heard.

All and all we lost thats final.. What i want from this is easy.. The sacking of referee boss and a complete overhaul on refereeing process & allow our captains i mean all captains to be treated like the senior individuals that they are.

Open message to the referees board... I love rugby league and i enjoy all games, on behalf of all NRL clubs and thurston.. Pull your Farking heads in you corrupt grubs and stop ruining our great game.

NRL has made positive steps to make the game bigger and greater... The referees are not moving quick enough and are dragging the game behind...

 

[pupii]

The better team won on the day, simple as that.

 

[RookieDog]

Week after week we same to get the same awful refereeing decisions, the terrible penalty count. After spending good money to go and see a poorly refereed game I decided to re-watch the game and make a list of contentious points that could have helped us win the match or at least given us a fairer go.

11:21 Dominant tackle by Tolman not rewarded. Penalised. Tony Archer refuses to listen to captain Ennis.
12:28 Reasonable 3 second (remember the amount of seconds for later on) dominant tackle by Inu labelled as "too slow". Another dubious penalty to Melbourne.
14:55 Pritchard's arm bounces off Cameron Smith's arm, ball and accidentally touches Smith's face. Yet another penalty to Melbourne. Smith misses penalty goal.
18:27 Bromwich strangles Eastwood in a tackle. No penalty
19:53 Prochter takes Graham with a swinging arm to the head. No penalty
23:40 Canterbury get a penalty. Storm inside the 10. After all, Melbourne had been playing perfect until then!
24:57 Slater deliberately knees Perrett as Perrett scores a try. No penalty.
28:14 Lowrie strips the ball from Morris which then goes over the sideline, it is ruled a knock on from Canterbury.
30:15 Widdop interferes in tackle, Perrett attempts to push him off and gets penalised. Melbourne should have been penalised for interfering in the ruck.
31:23 This leads directly to a try by Slater. Canterbury should have had the ball at this point.
45:02 6 second tackle from Slater on Morris unpenalised on 4th tackle.
50:15 6 second tackle from O'Neill on Inu unpenalised on 2nd tackle.
50:39 Hoffman knocks the ball out of Stagg's hand. Ruled knock on. Melbourne scrum.
51:40 O'Neill deliberately holds on Kasiano's leg as Kasiano is attempting to get off the tackled O'Neill. Penalty to Melbourne! Smith misses the penalty goal, a moral victory of sorts.
58:04 High tackle on Perrett by Widdop unpenalised on 1st tackle.
60:57 Pritchard taken out without the ball by Cronk on 3rd tackle. No penalty.
71:10 Offside defender Hoffman impedes Reynolds' run on 2nd tackle. No penalty.
71:49 5 second tackle from Widdop on Reynolds unpenalised on 5th tackle.

Thanks Earthquake. Unfortunately you just confirmed what I thought. I was at the game but haven't yet seen a replay (and frankly don't want to) so there were some extra points you noted which I had missed.

It is funny that through the week I had been quietly confident the Dogs would win it. Once at the game and as the first 15 minutes unfolded, I had a bad feeling just like many years ago when we player Rorters in the 2003 final. That **** Harrigan would just not let us get into the game. Penalties against us any 50/50 call against us. The way the first half started last night was exactly the same and put us completely on the back foot.

There is another point I would appreciate your (or anyone's) comment upon. About 25 minutes into the second half, after the Barba break down the left and kick through, Morris kicked ahead. Morris was pretty much over the try line and knocked the ball forward but in the air. As Morris went to regather Slater ran through and jumped over Morris appearing to contact Morris with his hands (at that point Morris was not in possession) then before Morris regathered Slater punched the ball dead. A 20m tap was awarded to Melbourne.

Should there have been a penalty to the Dogs for Slater's contact when Morris not in possession? or

Should there have been a goal line dropout?

I do not understand how the ruling can possible been for a Morris knock on (which must have been the ruling). If the reasoning was that the ball went forward from Morris's hands and contacted an opposition player that means absolutely no distinction is drawn between a player losing the ball forward into the defender who does not play at the ball and the case last night where Morris never had a chance to regather the ball and the ball was intentionally played at by Slater. I do not understand.

 

[loui323]

Thanks Earthquake. Unfortunately you just confirmed what I thought. I was at the game but haven't yet seen a replay (and frankly don't want to) so there were some extra points you noted which I had missed.

It is funny that through the week I had been quietly confident the Dogs would win it. Once at the game and as the first 15 minutes unfolded, I had a bad feeling just like many years ago when we player Rorters in the 2003 final. That **** Harrigan would just not let us get into the game. Penalties against us any 50/50 call against us. The way the first half started last night was exactly the same and put us completely on the back foot.

There is another point I would appreciate your (or anyone's) comment upon. About 25 minutes into the second half, after the Barba break down the left and kick through, Morris kicked ahead. Morris was pretty much over the try line and knocked the ball forward but in the air. As Morris went to regather Slater ran through and jumped over Morris appearing to contact Morris with his hands (at that point Morris was not in possession) then before Morris regathered Slater punched the ball dead. A 20m tap was awarded to Melbourne.

Should there have been a penalty to the Dogs for Slater's contact when Morris not in possession? or

Should there have been a goal line dropout?

I do not understand how the ruling can possible been for a Morris knock on (which must have been the ruling). If the reasoning was that the ball went forward from Morris's hands and contacted an opposition player that means absolutely no distinction is drawn between a player losing the ball forward into the defender who does not play at the ball and the case last night where Morris never had a chance to regather the ball and the ball was intentionally played at by Slater. I do not understand.

bro. either way it was the wrong decision.. I lost faith in the refereeing after that round when the refs were calling this game is about to change and even more so what happen to the cowboys.

 

[Mr Invisible]

Anyone notice the severe drop in quality by match officials started happening around the same time there was a huge increase in betting options on matches?

#justsayin

 

[nasals]

Hi RookieDog, you make a good point, I thought Morris was clearly pushed in the back by Slater so he couldn't regather and then punched the ball dead. It should have been a penalty to the Dogs but given all the calls were going against the Dogs and it was ruled a knock on, it should have been a scrum to Melbourne 5m out as Morris knocked it on before he got to the tryline.

From the start of the game it looked like Melbourne were trying to blow the Bulldogs off the park and win the game in the first 20 mins. It also looked like the refs were in on it as they gave alot of penalties to Melbourne and the Dogs were under the pump. The Dogs looked nervous and tbh they looked more comfortable tackling than attacking during that period.

I told my brother they have to watch Hoffman because I remember he scored against Parra in 2009 by simple missed tackles through Robson and Mortimer and he did it again. Unbelieveable !!

The turning point for me was when the Dogs diffused yet another attacking raid and Reynolds ran down filed with Barba looming, I knew he was going to lose it if he got tackled and he should have just kicked it ahead for Barba , Melbourne scored as soon as they got the ball back,

 

[Book]

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.

 

[r0ma]

watched replay on fox but it wasn't gus/rabs commentating, anyone know how you can watch with gus ?

 

[Maza]

watched replay on fox but it wasn't gus/rabs commentating, anyone know how you can watch with gus ?

Can watch here, click on left for 1st or 2nd half

http://www.nrl.com/Video/tabid/10959/Default.aspx

 

[r0ma]

Thanks Maza!

 

[magdog]

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!