Newcastle Knights coach Adam O’Brien has unloaded on the refereeing during his side’s golden point loss to the Sharks, taking aim at a few calls he believes cost his side.
O’Brien’s side were on the wrong end of some costly calls during the contest, with the Knights coach taking particular frustration with referee Gerard Sutton’s decision to sin bin halfback Phoenix Crossland right for a professional foul right on half-time.
Asked during his post-game press conference if he agreed with the call, O’Brien said he’d be “shocked if anyone agrees with it.”
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O’Brien frustrated by big calls in loss | 04:43
With the Sharks attacking the Knights goal line in the first half’s closing seconds, Crossland was deemed to have held down a Cronulla attacker for too long, preventing him from getting a quick play the ball and denying one final attacking chance.
Doubling down on his belief Crossland should have remained on the field, O’Brien explained “it was the third infringement of the half. I think we had one for offside at a scrum, which happens a lot, and we only had one for slowing the ruck down.”
“On the third one he puts a bloke in the bin,” he said.
“Is that a harsh standard? That’s just the third infringement for the game (and) he goes to the bin.”
With his side needing a win against the Sharks to ensure their finals hopes remain alive, O’Brien felt Sutton’s call was “ridiculous.”
To Newcastle’s credit, they managed to score through Dane Gagai while their halfback was in the sin bin, and did not leak any points to the home side, though their coach noted being a man down takes a physical toll on players.
Crossland’s sin binning was not the only refereeing call to catch the ire of the Knights coach, with the decision to rule out a Kalyn Ponga field late in the game for blocking also catching his criticism.
O’Brien didn’t feel the call was right, adding he felt the Sharks field goal disallowed moments later “was a field goal as well.”
He felt interchange forward Mat Croker was not in an illegal position, stating “they come up over the summer and say as long as the person is in an onside position to receive the ball, in our case it was Mat Croker, if the No.9 doesn’t pass to our field goal kicker, if he passes to (Croker) it’s not a forward pass.”
“He’s in an onside position,” O’Brien added.
“That’s how they explained it to us but Graham (Annesley) will find a way to dress it up.”
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