Dragons ‘confused’ by call which ‘changed game’, say they ‘deserved’ to win

Dragons interim coach Ryan Carr has blasted NRL officials over a controversial decision that flipped Sunday’s game on its head.

Eels and Dragons split 2

Dragons interim coach Ryan Carr has blasted the officials for a controversial decision to disallow a second half try to St George playmaker Junior Amone in his side’s 26-20 loss to the Eels.

Amone scooped up a loose ball and crossed to score under the posts, but the Bunker ruled Dragons hooker Jacob Liddle lost the ball. If awarded, the Dragons would have led 26-10.

The controversy was that Eels fullback Clint Gutherson had his hand on the football in the process of making a tackle on Liddle, but the Bunker ruled that despite this, it was a loose carry from the Dragons hooker and not a strip from Gutherson.

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The decision resulted in a momentum shift towards the Eels, who were trailing 20-10 at the time and then scored the next three tries to win the game.

Carr wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry, challenging the officials be held accountable and face “questions” from the media.

“Sorry I’m trying not to laugh. I don’t want to blow up and start a controversy because I’m sick of talking about but maybe they (referees) have to come down and answer you guys,” Carr said.

The Dragons felt robbed by the officials on Sunday. (Photo by Brett Hemmings/Getty Images)

“I have to do a press conference and you ask me but I don’t know the answer so maybe they should answer the questions for you so everyone in the whole world can understand why that wasn’t a try.

“You google strip and it’s hand on the ball, strips on the ball and it’s play on. It’s a try every day of the week.

“It’s a much different game (if it’s a try). They are a good team Parramatta and they were never going to go away but we deserved to score that try.

“It was good footy, we made a good line break and we deserved to score that try. The players are in the (dressing room) saying sorry to me but they don’t have to be sorry about anything.”

Eels coach Brad Arthur disagreed, believing Gutherson was just trying to make a tackle.

“Gutho’s trying to make a tackle, and he loses possession of the ball. I don’t know, it’s pretty simple isn’t it?” Arthur said.

“He didn’t strip the ball, he was trying to make a tackle. I saw one last night which was the exact same thing.”

Fox League’s Matt Russell asked Carr if he would like to add on the incident in anticipation of NRL head of football Graham Annesley’s weekly briefing on Monday.

“Not really, like I said maybe get them to come down and get the people who ruled it no try to come here and sit here where I’m sitting and answer these questions because I’m trying to answer it and I don’t have the answer,” Carr said.

“I know everyone agrees with me. The whole world so it’s not like I have one red eye and one white eye and I’m trying to make it all about us but it’s a try.

“It’s so disheartening for the players to have to go through it again. They are frustrated, they are confused.

“There are things late in that game, and I won’t go into detail, but we didn’t get a penalty since the 29th minute in that game. That was our last penalty.

“I could go into details of incidents in the game but out of the respect for the opposition, I won’t do it.”

Eels and Dragons split 2

Carr was asked if lower-ranked teams had bad luck with referring decisions, but the interim coach wasn’t keen to say too much.

“That’s a dangerous line that one. I’m not going to buy into it, I have my own opinions on it,” Carr said.

“I don’t know what the outcome would have been (if try wasn’t disallowed), but obviously we lost by six so I think that helps.”

Despite the loss, Carr couldn’t have been happier with the effort of his side.

“Our effort was one of the best efforts from a team that I’ve ever seen to be honest with you. We lost (prop) Frank Molo in the first set (HIA) so some of our players had to play massive minutes. It throws everything out of whack when you lose a forward there.

“I thought we were super brave, tough, resilient. I know the scoreboard doesn’t show it but we deserved to win.”

Originally published as Dragons ‘confused’ by call which ‘changed game’, say they ‘deserved’ to win