Titans interim coach Jim Lenihan has expressed his confusion at why no penalty was called when playmaker Kieran Foran was collected high during their 37-16 loss to the Storm.
Foran was accidentally hit across the face as he was being tackled by Harry Grant and Ryan Papenhuyzen when the Titans were only trailing by eight points with 11 minutes to go.
Foran was ordered to leave the field for a 15-minute HIA, despite repeatedly pleading he was fine.
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Lenihan said he was “baffled” at how his side weren’t awarded a penalty.
“I thought we were pretty good. Right up until Kieran got asked to leave with 11 minutes to go we were right in the game,” Lenihan said in his post-match press conference.
“I sort of get a bit baffled how we don’t get the penalty for Kieran getting hit in the head yet the doctor takes him off for being hit in the head.
“I felt like we deserved a penalty at that point and we didn’t get it and then we lose our best ballplayer for the rest of the game inside the last 15 minutes and then they get two tries to finish us off.
“I’m proud of the boys’ effort, I think we really tried really hard with what we’ve got out there playing right now.”
Lenihan was later asked by a reporter if Foran was ok to which the interim coach had another dig had the no-call, as well the lack of penalties they recieved compared to their opponents.
“I think he’s ok. All year if you make contact with the head it seems to be a penalty and then like I said, the ref seems to make out that it wasn’t that hard but then the independant doctor takes him off
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“Then for the last 15 minutes of the game we can’t use our best ballplayer so I don’t really know how we don’t get any advantage out of that at all.
“It’s the turning point of the game when we are right in the game and then something again seems to happen to us.
“Sometimes at the moment it gets a bit hard. A lot of the penalties out there, we seem to be getting… but Melbourne don’t seem to be getting that many and again they’ve probably earnt that over a long period of time.”
Titans captain Tino Fa’asuamaleaui said Foran’s exit from the game “rattled” his side.
“Foz (Foran) came off, our best ballplayer on the team and we got a bit rattled. But we still got to solve that, it’s a learning for us,” Fa’asuamaleaui said.
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