St George Illawarra Dragons head coach Shane Flanagan has voiced his frustration towards referee Grant Atkins and the officiating team following a narrow loss against the Canterbury Bulldogs in Las Vegas, which marked the start of their season.
The Dragons faced a one-point defeat in golden point due to a contentious decision in the game's final minute, where they were penalized for stripping the ball.
Replays seemed to indicate a loose carry, prompting Flanagan to criticize that ruling and several others during his post-match press conference.
"It's a loose carry mate, every day of the week, without a doubt. There was that, there was a lot of others. We didn't get the rub of the green, that's for sure, but it wasn't decided in my view, the right way," Flanagan said.
He noted, "There was a couple of others that went to the bunker that were strange. We didn't get the rub of the green in any of those decisions. I'll just reiterate, the game has been put on a real high pedestal, but tonight, it shouldn't have been decided the way it was. Good luck to the Bulldogs, they were good enough to kick the field goal, but we should have gone home one point each."
Flanagan further requested a journalist to attribute their comments about a high shot from Stephen Crichton, who was reported but not sin-binned for direct contact above the shoulders of rookie winger Setu Tu.
"I don't want to keep on focusing on the negatives because it has been a great week, a great promotion, but in the first half we saw Stephen Crichton put on report for a high shot. The game earlier, there was a similar tackle and a bloke got ten minutes for that tackle. I'm just trying to work out some consistency," the journalist said.
Flanagan replied, "Mate, can you just write your words that you just said and put your name underneath it, because I am exactly the same. Like, seriously, come on. There was another one there that Setu Tu was running back, they kicked it in behind, he is running back towards the ball, Kikau pushes him in the back and they get a penalty. Like, come on."
He concluded, "There was about six or seven of them [decisions that went against us]."