Interim Dragons coach Ryan Carr has delivered his first epic spray as an NRL coach, blasting a number of calls that went against his side in Saturdays' 24-18 loss to Manly.
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The Dragons trailed 12-8 at halftime and 22-8 after conceding two tries in the 11 minutes after the break, but fought back into the contest to draw within four points late despite the sin-binning of Jack de Belin for a hip-drop with 18 minutes to play.
On the fly, de Belin's part in a tackle on Christian Tuipulotu was innocuous enough to escape the attention of the on-field officials, with the Manly winger getting to his feet and playing the ball.
Two further tackles passed before Josh Schuster spilled the ball cold, stopping play. The delay continued as Tuipulotu had his knee strapped behind play, with the bunker intervening and directing on-field referee Chris Butler to give de Belin his marching orders.
The Dragons scored through Tyrell Sloan soon after, but it still had Carr fuming, with the walkie-talkie in the coach's box copping a bigger battering than any player out there on the park.
"Which one do you want me to start with because they both need their time?" Carr said when asked about tough calls.
"De Belin was sin-binned and the game stopped for nearly two minutes for a guy (Tuipulotu) to get his knee strapped. That's not the rule, it's play on. Either leave the field or it's play on.
"Then in that moment, when they made an error on halfway, we lose not only possession and field position, but we lose a man for 10 in the bin. It's ridiculous, it's absolutely ridiculous.
"Last week Junior [Amone] got hip-dropped by [John] Bateman, there was no penalty, it didn't come back from the bunker, and he got charged after the game. The contradiction in that alone is ridiculous.
"I'm sorry I'm ranting, but I just feel so sorry for everyone involved with our club and everyone who's invested in it because it doesn't deserve to come down to that.
"I'm not saying that we win the game if he doesn't get sin-binned, but we shouldn't have to go through [being down to] 12 men for 10 minutes and then try and find a way to win it in the last minute."
Carr was equally aggrieved at the decision to deny Dan Russell a try midway through the second half after several replays were deemed inconclusive, with the bunker deferring back to the on-field decision of 'no try'.
"I need to figure out why it wasn't given a try," Carr said.
"The wording that I was given was 'he's got the ball down, we just need to figure out if he's over the try-line'. The next wording was 'Dan Russell's clearly over the try line' and it was just contradictory to a 'no try'.
"It was a big moment that hurts when you're fighting as hard as you can to try and get a try. If the wording was different, like he hasn't got the ball down or he's not over the line, fair enough, but all the wording added up to it being a try."
Typically a measured character through any number of on and off-field dramas since taking the helm in difficult circumstances, Carr said he felt compelled to deliver some home truths rather than seek clarification from NRL HQ.
"Me seeking clarification doesn't help our fans and our members and our players and their families," Carr said.
"The game's gone now. I'll get clarification, I'll seek it, they'll give it to me [and say] 'yeah we were wrong' it doesn't help us. There's a lot of people putting a lot of time at our club into trying to find a win for our fans and our members and just themselves.
"For it to come down to that, the clarification doesn't help me. It doesn't help us, it doesn't help the boys. I'm sitting in there talking to the team after the game and I can't give them an explanation.
"I feel so sorry for my players, I feel sorry for the fans who have to watch the game, I feel sorry for fans of rugby league in general because that was a good game of footy out there and a call like that just has a huge bearing and impact on the game."
The comments could attract scrutiny from the NRL, but it shouldn't expect any apologies from the 34-year-old.
"It's my job to stand up for my players and our club and I'm going to do it, and I'm not going to back down from it because it's ridiculous," Carr said.
"They feel like they've let each other down or the club down. They haven't, they're trying as hard as I've ever seen them try. In terms of the process of the way we played the game, it was the best we've played in a long time.
"We're improving heaps, and our effort's unreal. You can see that. They could easily be tapping out these players right now, there's so many excuses around them they could grab and they're not.
"That's what I love about them, but I'm not going sit here and just go 'I'll ask the NRL about it or I'll seek clarification'. It's ridiculous, it's seriously ridiculous."
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Mitch Jennings
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
Sports writer. Sport is my passion, rugby league my first love.
