Paul Kent: Dark arts of coaching behind Des Hasler blaming referee Kasey Badger for Titans defeat

Des Hasler’s dark arts entered the GIO Stadium post-game press conference when the Titans coach questioned the refereeing - a ploy he’s implemented before. Only this time, writes PAUL KENT, it backfired.

Des Hasler and Kasey Badger.

The gamesmanship that happens on the NRL field is small potatoes compared to the dark arts that take place, usually after a game, but also Monday morning when the Open For Business sign goes up at NRL headquarters.

Coaches have changed the whole way games are played.

Nobody practised the dark arts better than Bob Fulton. Bozo changed the game with his ability to exert pressure on the referees and bend them to his will, until it finally blew up in spectacular fashion when he fronted Bill Harrigan in the tunnel at Brookvale one wintry afternoon, telling him, among other things, he hoped he would one day get run over by a cement truck.

Several volunteer drivers soon surfaced but the game’s bosses got in first, bringing in rules banning coaches from attacking referees after the game.

It mattered nothing to the coaches, who chose the less direct path of going them at press conferences.

Soon it descended into a minor chaos.

Losing coaches seemingly had two options at every press conference after a game: praise the opposition or criticise the referee.

Coach Des Hasler. Picture: Chris Hyde/Getty Images

DARK ART EXPLAINED: THE CON

The dark arts were there again Sunday evening when Gold Coast Titans coach Des Hasler channelled his former coach, Fulton, and questioned the refereeing.

For reasons nobody can adequately explain, most critics, usually us plastic warriors from the press box, but quickly supported by the noisy vacuums, highlight a lopsided penalty count as an example of bad refereeing.

Coaches know this.

A high penalty count, somewhere along the lines of 20-plus, is another example of a referee getting the job wrong.

“I’ll be the first to say that we were ill-disciplined in parts but, my opinion, I thought the refereeing performance was pretty poor,” Hasler said.

His explanation was simple.

“I think a lopsided penalty count, particularly in the area of 10 six-again [penalties] against the one.”

The Titans wrap up Hudson Young, with hands all over the ball. Picture: Mark Nolan/Getty Images

DARK ART EXPLAINED: THE DECEPTION

What often fails to be noticed is that there is never a suggestion a team might have been ill-disciplined itself or, dare anybody say it, deliberately cynical by being coached that way.

Until Sunday, the Titans have been awful.

Up to then they were the first team in premiership history to go six straight games conceding 28 points or more.

It’s an obscure statistic, totally made up, but it reveals how poor the Titans have been defensively and where their problems sat.

Then last week, a recording went around the NRL of Hasler’s outstanding blow-up in the dressing room after the Round 5 game and it was clear the warning had been delivered by the coach.

No more massaging egos; now it was time to get the job done.

DARK ART EXPLAINED: THE DETAIL

The Titans didn’t lose the six-again count 10-1 Sunday night, as Hasler claimed, though it was close.

They lost ruck infringements 4-1 and were bumped again for being offside 4-0.

How this translated under a later inspection was revealed on Monday at Graham Annesley’s weekly confessional.

Annesley conceded there were 10 times the Raiders were offside and not caught by the referee. Their count was zero, giving Hasler’s claim some credibility.

Yet, for the complainants, Annesley revealed there was 28 times the Titans were offside and not caught — on top of the four for which they did get pinched.

In a fair world, the Titans would have fared much worse than a 4-0 count.

DARK ART EXPLAINED: THE BLUFF

Do the Titans deserve sympathy?

Hasler’s criticisms and the lopsided penalty count begin to make sense only if you ask yourself a sensible question in respect to where the Titans were coming from: namely, if you were coaching the worst-short term defensive team in NRL history, what is the quick fix?

The answer, of course, is to cheat and press at every opportunity in defence.

Slow the play-the-ball down with illegal tactics, like hands on the ball in the tackle, laying in the tackle, being offside at marker, and take what advantages are left by being inside the 10m.

What coaches know that few others do is that each cynical ploy, done deliberately, is a dare to the referee to keep penalising.

In past days, the crowd would boo and the commentators would shriek and soon enough the referee would pocket the whistle for fear of alerting headquarters they were putting in a “bad” game by over-officiating.

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart. Picture: Jenny Evans/Getty Images

DARK ART EXPLAINED: THE FALLOUT

That fear has shrunk with the six-again rule, though, where they are usually off and gone before fans even realise what has happened, which is what happened on Monday.

Hasler had some legitimate complaints. Chevy Stewart was definitely offside, for instance, when he charged down Kieran Foran’s field-goal attempt that would have won the game.

But if Kasey Badger had hit every penalty that was there for offside it would have been 32-10, according to Annesley’s count, instead of 4-0.

Referee Kasey Badger held her nerve in the Raiders-Titans game. Picture: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

“That’s not just fictional figures,” Annesley said. “They come from the statisticians.”

Delivered unemotionally after video review.

Some might legitimately ask how the game has allowed itself to be corrupted like this, that there were in fact 38 offsides that the referee failed to pick up and how the game can claim to be fairly adjudicated with such a disparity.

At whose discretion?

The only fraternity we won’t hear from on this are the coaches.

They know it better than anyone but, also, they started it.