Dogs to seek clarity on Curran’s bizarre ref impersonation penalty

The Bulldogs were hit with one of the most bizarre penalties the NRL has seen after one player was pinged for impersonating the referee.

Rikki-Lee Arnold

less than 2 min read

March 23, 2025 - 8:05PM

NRL

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The Bulldogs were hit with an unusual penalty in their Sunday afternoon clash with Eels, with forward Josh Curran pinged for impersonating the referee.

With three minutes left in the opening half, match official Wyatt Raymond blew the whistle to hand Parramatta another set for Canterbury “calling a bloke offside”.

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The player in question was understood to be Curran, with the offside call causing the Eels defence to fall away from tackling Bulldogs winger Blake Wilson.

Josh Curran penalised for impersonating ref.

Explaining his decision, Raymond said the incident was “against the true spirit of the game.”

Fox League commentator Andrew Voss was in shock, labelling it a “bizarre penalty”.

“That is a sensational call here,” Voss said.

“The referee has latched onto a Canterbury player for calling one of the Eels defenders as offside and he stays out of the play.

“I’ve never seen the like of it or heard the like of it.”

Referee Wyatt Raymond penalises the Bulldogs for "referee impersonation".

Speaking after the match, Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo confirmed he would seek clarity from the NRL on what the penalty was.

Ciraldo asked the journalists the last time “it got penalised” and when one responded they had never seen it before, Ciraldo agreed.

“Yeah, neither have I,” he said.

“I didn’t know what it was for. I’ll have to get some clarity on that.

“But there were a lot of things that went against us at crucial times. We have to look at that. We need to find ways that we can be better at what we can control but that was a tricky one.”