Canberra coach Ricky Stuart has blasted the NRL’s bunker and says it should be scrapped, believing it cost his side victory against the Warriors last weekend.
A fired-up Stuart told reporters on Thursday the bunker was “getting it so wrong” it should only adjudicate on potential tries as it “damaging our game”.
An NRL’s video referee awarded a penalty against Raiders forward Corey Horsburgh for an apparent high shot on Matt Lodge, despite minimal contact to the head of the Warriors prop.
Lodge has since reportedly admitted he stayed down in an attempt to win the penalty, while the bunker official Steve Chiddy has not been selected to officiate a match this weekend.
The subsequent penalty allowed the Warriors to tie the scores at 20-20 in the 80th minute of the clash before pinching the win in golden point.
Stuart, who said he’d spoken to NRL’s head of football Graham Annesley since the weekend, called on the system to be dramatically scaled back or scrapped altogether.
“I believe the bunker is damaging our game, I don’t believe we do need the bunker because they can’t get it right,” he said.
“I really believe the bunker is getting it so wrong we need to have the bunker only involved in contentious tries.
“It’s just damaging the fabric and the way we want the game to be viewed, it’s annoying and it makes it more annoying when you lose games from it.”
Stuart questioned why the bunker’s independent doctor had not implemented head-injury protocols for Lodge despite the alleged head contact.
“(Lodge) has even come out and said that he’s faked it … we all knew he faked it, everyone in the ground knew he faked it,” Stuart said.
“I really don’t understand how we can penalise Corey Horsburgh on that shot on Lodge … and yet we have a bunker doctor who wants to keep contributing into a game, he laid on the ground for a number of seconds after a so-called head shot, and the bunker doctor didn’t even want to do any HIA protocols.”
Sturat also contrasted the contact with an elbow Lodge delivered to Corey Harawira-Naera that was not flagged for a penalty, but did earn the forward a $1000 fine.
