Canberra may still be sitting pretty in the NRL top eight but after their third consecutive home defeat – a 34-16 drubbing at the hands of North Queensland – coach Ricky Stuart was less than pleased.

The Raiders served up a shocker of a first half to the almost 10,000 loyal fans who braved the cold, conceding six penalties and four tries as North Queensland ran out to a 22-0 lead.

The Canberra faithful are a dutiful bunch and seldom are seen turning on their own. But after shipping 118 points in three games, the levee broke and a chorus of boos rained on the Raiders men as they trudged up the race at the interval.

Stuart’s patience was clearly also at an end. “You think we’re trying to lose at home?” he fired back when asked about the GIO Stadium losing streak post-game. “We’re trying to do everything to win at home.”

And when asked about the fans’ reaction: “Mate, I’m not out there with the fans at half-time.”

While Stuart conceded his side’s ill-discipline cost them, he could not help but criticise what he saw as uneven officiating.

“I’ve already spoken to the individuals in regards to the ill-discipline at halftime and then after the game,” he said. 

“But go have a look for yourself at the three-minute mark in that game, when Danny Levi gets penalised for offside. It would’ve been half a foot, so by the rule book it’s offside.

“But then we got four six-agains on their goal line. I don’t know what constitutes a player to get binned. 

“They won the game in the first 25-30 minutes through us giving away cheap field position. But if Danny Levi’s is offside, why aren’t all the other offsides getting done?”

Cowboys coach Todd Payten had a straightforward answer to the question.

“I heard through the Sports Ears that we got a warning, so the next penalty was going to be a sin-binning, and I don’t totally disagree with the warning we got, but we didn’t give away another penalty,” he said. “So we didn’t deserve to lose a player.”

It wasn’t all doom and gloom for the Raiders. The home side were much improved after the break and scored 16 second-half points to the Cowboys’ 12.

Only conceding one penalty made their jobs much easier, said Stuart. “We got a roll on, we got some football in their end of the footy field and scored some good tries,” he said.

“But it’s not going to happen when you keep giving cheap field position away. Sometimes it’s guesses, other times it’s ill-discipline and I’ll nail the ill-discipline.”