The NRL insist their referees got it right to sin-bin Jake Trbojevic late in Manly’s controversial semi-final loss to South Sydney.
Trbojevic was binned by referee Gerard Sutton with 13 minutes left on the clock at ANZ Stadium on Friday night, with Manly leading the do-or-die clash 26-20.
The Rabbitohs scored two tries in his absence as they claimed the 34-26 win, setting up a date with Canberra and ending the Sea Eagles’ season.
Manly coach Des Hasler fumed after the match and claimed his team had been “dudded”, certain Trbojevic should not have been binned for holding back Dane Gagai as Souths broke down field.
But the NRL’s head of football Graham Annesley strongly rebuked the suggestion, after he and Hasler also spoke following the match.
“It was a professional foul in a try-scoring situation,” Annesley said.
“Last week I publicly criticised a referee for not using the sin-bin in similar circumstances.
“If Jake doesn’t grab the support player, the consequences don’t occur.”
The NRL just last week axed referee Ashley Klein for failing to sin bin Canberra’s Elliott Whitehead as the Storm broke down field in the Raiders’ eventual win.
Hasler also claimed Annesley told him the solution was not for his player to be give away the penalty in the future.
But Hasler insisted there was a clear difference between the need to penalise and sin-bin, with the offence committed 30m away from the tryline.
“Do I think we were dudded? Yep, I think we were dudded,” Hasler said.
“The call on Jake in the second half was a bit tough.
“Was it a penalty? I don’t mind a penalty. I can handle a penalty. Did he deserve to get sent off? No, I didn’t think he deserved to get sent off.
“You don’t want to see the game coming down to crucial calls like that.”
Hasler also took issue with the 9-3 penalty count against his team, but conceded they had too blown chances to win the game after fighting back from 10-0 down.
“We could’ve managed it better, when we took the game apart,” Hasler said.
“We could’ve been a little bit tidier. It’s a bit unusual, that process around trylines. It’s been pretty good all year, they got those tries early.”