Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo was “trying to be careful” when asked about the officiating in his side’s loss to the Sharks — but admitted he’ll be seeking “clarity” on some of the decisions.
Ciraldo was “proud” of his troops, who held the Sharks to just one try in the first 55 minutes with some spirited defence, but was “disappointed” with several calls made by referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski.
When asked if he feels like the bounce of the ball just didn’t go the Bulldogs’ way, Ciraldo said: “yeah, you could say that.”
“I feel like it’s been like that for a while, but whether it’s the bounce of the balls or… I have to be careful with what I say, but I was disappointed with a few of them,” he added.
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Ciraldo was then pressed further on a couple of specific calls.
The first was Viliame Kikau’s try being disallowed due to Przeklasa-Adamski impeding Braydon Trindall. It was deemed that Trindall could’ve stopped the barnstorming Kikau — who is 15cm taller and 26kg heavier — if the referee didn’t get in the way.
“I’ve got lots of thoughts on that… What did you think? I’m not trying to be rude, I’m just trying to bite my tongue on it a little bit,” Ciraldo said.
“I just felt like at half time the score could’ve been a lot different and that could’ve changed the tempo of the game.”
Captain Stephen Crichton agreed with his coach, saying: “I reckon if he (the referee) wasn’t there he (Kikau) probably would’ve scored anyway, big ‘Kiks’ on someone 20 kilos lighter than him.”
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The second was the decision to sin-bin Briton Nikora for a shoulder charge in the first five minutes rather than sending him off.
”It’s hard to get caught up in that one. It didn’t look great, but he’s not that sort of player. I don’t think he would’ve meant it, but it wasn’t a great look,” Ciraldo said.
Ronaldo Mulitalo’s try was also brought up in the post-match press conference, and more specifically if there was a knock-on in the lead up.
Ciraldo said “probably the same as the other calls that went against us” when asked if he had any thoughts on it.
He then called out other contentious calls in the game and revealed that he’s planning on contacting the governing body for an explanation.
“I just thought there were a lot,” Ciraldo said.
“(Blake) Taaffe gets tackled in the air and loses the ball — that’s a penalty every day of the week.
“Kikau, from what I saw it wasn’t a high tackle. I could go on and on.
“I’m going to have to send them in this week and get some clarity on some of them because there’s just so many of them.
“I felt like that last year, but we were hurting ourselves last year and we didn’t have that same level of effort.
“Now I’ve got that level of effort, I want us to get the fair calls, I want us to get what they deserve because they’re not getting it at the moment.”
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Ciraldo was pleased with his side’s defence, particularly on their goal-line and put that down to the how close the players have grown over the pre-season.
He admitted there were some missed opportunities in the second half, but believes had some things gone their way in the first half, the team would’ve felt more confident as the game went on.
“You can’t defend the way we’re defending on the goal-line without that connection, we’re probably just doing too much of it,” he said.
“If we could get some of those 50-50 calls or 80-20 calls we might even get more opportunities down there but at the moment they’re just not happening for us and I look forward to the day they do.”
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It was a thrilling clash between the two sides that had chaos from start to finish. It was clear how hungry the players were for two competition points with emotions bubbling over a couple of times and turning into a push-and-shove.
Referee Przeklasa-Adamski had to call in captains Dale Finucane and Crichton to warn them to “take control” of their sides.
Ciraldo shut down any talk of there being “niggle” out on the field and instead backed his players for making a bit of a statement.
“I don’t think there was niggle… I just thought our blokes decided to stick up for themselves,” he said.
“They showed that connection they’ve been building and said ‘that’s it, we’re not going to allow ourselves to be bullied’ — and they didn’t.”
Source Agencies
