Coaches fume at ‘poor’ refereeing as Eels feel aggrieved

“Nothing went our way,” he told the media.

“It’s very hard to come down here to Canberra when you get a 10-3 penalty count against you.

“We contributed to a few things, not getting enough kicks in and good ball, especially in the second half, but I don’t know what more I can say to the boys – I thought they were stiff.

“We didn’t have any ball. We had 38 per cent possession in the second half. If we got some back-to-back sets we would have been okay.”

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The Eels are currently ranked 16th in the league for penalties awarded with 52 for the season.

“We can’t be the best in the competition with our discipline and then get penalised 10 times tonight,” Arthur said.

“We can’t be told that we’ve got great compliance and then we get penalised 10 times. It can’t happen.

“I will never say anything about the refereeing, but I think tonight we were hard done by.

Eels strike first

In particular, Arthur evidenced Bailey Simonsson’s controversial tackle in which the winger was placed on report for a hip drop, but contradictorily not sent to the sin bin.

He also criticised the decision to place Junior Paulo on report a for low tackle which took out Joseph Tapine’s legs in the first half.

“It’s not a cannonball. There was no force in it whatsoever, none,” he said.

Asked if he would be surprised if Paulo was charged by the NRL Judiciary, Arthur downplayed any further punishment.

“Yeah, 100 per cent. There was nothing in it,” he said.

Opposition coach Ricky Stuart also voiced his concern at the refereeing, more specifically the interpretations of some actions.

Firstly, Stuart disputed Corey Horsburgh’s first-half sin-binning for striking Ryan Matterson.

“I think Corey shouldn’t have got 10 minutes. I thought that was a poor decision in regard to the sin-binning of Corey. That really put us under pressure,” he said.

Raiders enforcer in the bin

Stuart was also frustrated with Paulo’s tackle on Tapine as it saw the lock leave the field injured after hyperextending his knee.

“I’m a mate of Junior’s and I don’t want to add any extra exposure, I suppose, to it all. But I had a player go off for that,” he said.

“Corey Horsburgh pushed a player in the head. Corey got pushed in the head as well when he was held by the jumper.

“Latrell Mitchell last week pushed a player to the head twice. Nothing happened, he was allowed to play the ball – we got a player sent to the bin.

“If you’re going to change the interpretations around like that it’s just crap. You can’t change interpretations week to week.

“I feel sorry for the referees because they’re the ones under pressure when the interpretations keep getting changed every week. I don’t know who’s telling them.

“Why this week when you push someone in the head you get 10 minutes in the bin and put us under pressure as a team.

“Because last week we saw a situation that you’re allowed to do now. You’re allowed to push people in the head.”

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Stuart also advocated for the players amid the NRL’s crackdown on hip-drop tackles.

“I’m glad it’s changed because too many players are laying down now on hip drops,” he said.

“I don’t think you should sin bin players on hip drops because too many of them are laying down.

“Some guys, the hardest part of their night is to get up and pretend they’ve got a sore leg.

“I don’t believe you should be sin-binning blokes for hip drops because they’re tackles that accidentally go wrong. Coaches do not coach hip drops.

“If you went into a tackle to try and do a hip drop, you would miss.”

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