Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo has been critical of match officials after his side was edged 20-18 in a nail-biter in Townsville.
North Queensland backrower Jeremiah Nanai appeared to disrupt Canterbury winger Blake Wilson which went unsanctioned, while teammate Kulikefu Finefeuiaki kneed Bailey Hayward in the head as he attempted to score, for which he was placed on report but not sent to the sin bin.
When asked what he thought of the incidents, Ciraldo said to his knowledge there had been no changes made to the disruptor rules.
The only place to watch every game of every round LIVE with no ad-breaks during play is Fox League, available on Kayo. New to Kayo? Start your free trial today >
“Not that I know of. I’m not great on emails but maybe there’s something in there that I’ve missed,” he said.
“That was confusing and at the end of the day he’s got to catch that but we wanted to challenge that too and we weren’t given the opportunity to challenge and that was disappointing.
“I’ve got some friends in there from overseas and they’re new to the game and they’re asking how you can get a sin bin from tackling a bloke half a second really but you don’t get sin binned for driving your knees into a guy when he puts the ball down.
“I can’t explain that so there’s a number of rules that I just can’t explain and there’s some decisions tonight that I just can’t explain but I’ll ask for explanations during the week.”
Cowboys focused on securing finals footy | 04:54
Bulldogs captain Stephen Crichton sent a scare through his team after receiving a stinger that threatened end his evening.
“I tried to keep pretty low and jammed up my neck but I was trying to get up but couldn’t move my arm so I was just trying to get some feeling,” Crichton said.
“I think it was just a really bad stinger and it was referring down my neck as the game was going on.”
Ciraldo praised Crichton’s toughness to keep playing through the pain while also backing up from Wednesday’s Decider in Brisbane.
“It’s weird talking about him while he’s here but he just continues to amaze he how tough he is, his leadership qualities,” he said.
“We were ready to replace him a number of times and he just refused to come off. He’s just changing the culture of what we’re about and just refuses to give in and refuses to give up on his teammates.
“I was really concerned when it happened and how it was looking.”
MORE NEWS
‘NEVER BEEN A FAN’: Bennett filthy after young gun’s mistake in heartbreaking loss
ARE YOU KIDDING?: Cleary sinks Dolphins with epic 43m golden point winner
WHISPERS: Dragons set to release star early in order to make play at big-name rival
TRANSFER CENTRE: Dolphins prop released to replace sacked Super League star
The Bulldogs face an under-fire Broncos next week who will be desperate for a win to keep their season alive.
“As a club what I’m really proud of is we’re starting to get that next man up mentality that the top clubs have,” Ciraldo said.
“It doesn’t matter who’s playing or who’s missing you come in and there’s a certain level of performance you expect and I’m really proud of our guys living up to that level of performance.
“I think we did a lot of things great and we missed some moments and we’ll reflect on them and try and fix them up next week against the Broncos, but our effort, our attitude, our commitment to everything we are doing I couldn’t ask for more at the moment.”
Source Agencies
