That fact was made clear as the Dragons advanced to the NRL Nines semi-finals on the back of a last-second try from young-gun Cody Ramsey on Saturday evening.

Trailing 17-13 with no time left on the clock, Ben Hunt lofted a kick to the corner with Ramsey pulling it down for what looked like his hat-trick of four pointers and the win.

With no video referee in operation, referee Ben Cummins relied on the reports of his touch and in-goal judges to award the try only for replays to show Ramsey hadn't gone close to getting it into the Panthers in-goal.

It was no up for review, except for the thousands and fans and viewers with the benefit of replays, who voiced their displeasure at an incident that sure to mar the entire tournament.

Ramsey himself took a conciliatory approach when asked about the controversy in the immediate aftermath.

"I would've liked to get it in the in-goal but it is what it is," Ramsey said.

"It's a bit disappointing, I thought I got it but, in the end it's up to the refs, I'm not the one making the call."

Speaking with Fox Sports, NRL Head of Football Graham Annesley was frank in his assessment.

"I'm very disappointed obviously, you only need to look at the replay to see it wasn't a try," Annesley said.

"The officials got it wrong and that's disappointing. There's three [officials] out there and, between the three of them, they've got to come up with the right decision.

"I haven't dissected it, Bernard Sutton the referees coach will do that, but ultimately they got the decision wrong. They should've got it right but they're human, they make mistakes, this is helper skelter football.

"It does demonstrate why we have video referees in the premiership proper but that's just the way it is."

It left Penrith and their fans fuming, with the call denying them a chance at the tournament and a hefty $1 million prize.

"There's not an avenue for protest about refereeing decisions," Annesley said.

"They're obviously out there trying to get these decisions right, there'd be a multitude of errors they've made during the course of the tournament, not as big as that decision.

"In this the of competition, it's a competition that revolves around continuity of play, it revolves around back to back games starting on time, if we had a video referee in play for this type of tournament we'd probably be here til three o'clock tomorrow morning.

"We've had over a hundred tries [scored] a percentage of those would probably go to the video referee, that's not what this tournament's about, it's about fun and people being able to see back to back games.

"That doesn't in any way diminish the fact that they got the decision wrong but they are human and they make mistakes."

Regardless, the record books will show the Dragons sensation grabbed three tries in a Dragons win - the first in which he burned three Panthers defenders undoubtedly the pick of them.

Ramsey also scored in the Dragons pool loss to Eels in their earlier match, again off the boot of Hunt, showing why many tipped him as a player to watch at the tournament.

The Dragons will now rematch the Eels at 8.20pm in the first semi-final.