Canberra’s rage with the NRL’s judiciary and referees shows no sign of simmering down, with hooker Zac Woolford asking “what’s the game come to” after a star teammate copped a lengthy ban.
Queensland State of Origin representative Corey Horsburgh won’t play again this season unless the Raiders make the grand final, the judiciary rejecting his appeal against a shoulder charge ban and slapping him with a four-game suspension.
Woolford said the hit on Brisbane’s Corey Jensen was nothing but a “good shot” and said Horsburgh was hard done by, as his side prepares for a potentially do-or-die clash against Cronulla on Sunday.
It caps a week when the Raiders have repeatedly questioned NRL officiating.
Captain Elliott Whitehead blasted fines dished out by the judiciary as “outrageous” after teammate Jordan Rapana was stung for a third week in a row, while coach Ricky Stuart suggested there’s a reason why his side has copped the wrong end of some dubious calls this year.
Woolford said public commentary from former players supporting Horsburgh showed the final outcome wasn’t correct.
“It’s tough to say too much, but what’s the game come to?” he said.
“It was a pretty good shot. I’m pretty sure all the past players and people in the media all thought the same thing.
“So for everyone to be thinking that and then the powers that be to be thinking (different) is a bit weird, but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Rapana was slapped with a $3000 fine for an attempted trip on Selwyn Cobbo as the Brisbane winger scored a try in their 29-18 win against the Raiders, despite making minimal contact.
That makes it $9000 worth of fines for Rapana in the last three weeks, hit with separate $3000 penalties for using his knees in a tackle on Canterbury’s Viliame Kikau and for a trip on Melbourne’s Reimis Smith.
Rapana has racked up a $15,000 fine tab to go with eight games worth of suspensions in the last two seasons, Whitehead suggesting monetary penalties for footballing incidents might not be the right course of action.
“They’re getting a bit outrageous them fines, especially for the one on the weekend, there’s not much in there … to get $3000 again is pretty harsh to be honest,” he said.
“I don’t know what they do with the money they take from you, if you’re taking $9000 off someone, there’s not very much wage left come the end of the month.
“Maybe they have to look at something different there because obviously he’s not learning, he keeps getting fined week in, week out.
“(And) to keep getting fined $3000, it does hurt, I’m sure anybody out there with a normal job got fined three grand (would agree), it hurts.”
By Alex Mitchell in Canberra
