Interim Dragons coach Ryan Carr has unleashed his second major spray in the space of seven days after his side was denied a try midway through the second half of Sunday's 26-20 loss to the Eels.
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Seven days after unloading on the officiating following his side's loss the Manly in Wollongong, Carr again came off the long run when asked about the bunker denying Talatau Amone a try in the 54th minute.
With the Dragons leading 20-10 following the last of four tries to Mikaele Ravalawa, Jacob Liddle looked try-bound only for the desperate hand of Eels skipper Clint Gutherson to deny him a four-pointer.
Replays showed Gutherson's hand clearly wrenching the ball from Liddle's grasp, with Amone picking up the loose ball and planting it under the black dot.
On-field referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski sent the incident up as a "no try" with bunker official Chris Butler confirming the ruling, dubbing it a "loose carry" by Liddle.
It was a key moment in the game, with the Dragons scoreless from that point on as the Eels stormed home with three tries to snatch the victory. A fuming Carr couldn't hold his tongue when quizzed about the call.
"I'm trying not to laugh," Carr said.
"I don't want to blow up and create a massive controversy because I'm sick of talking about it. Maybe get the people who ruled it 'no try' to sit here where I'm sitting and answer these questions.
"I have to do a press conference, you ask me, and I don't know the answer. Maybe they should come down and sit here and answer the questions for you so everyone in the whole world can understand why that wasn't a try.
"You Google 'strip' and it's 'hand on the ball, strips it out and it's play on'. It's a try every day of the week. It's a much different game [had it been awarded].
"They're a good team, Parramatta. They've got good players and they were never going to go away, but we earned the right to score that try. It was good footy. We made a good line break and we deserved to score that try.
"I know everyone agrees with me, the whole world. It's not like I've got one red eye and one white eye and I'm trying to make it all about us, but it's a try. It's so disheartening for the players to have to go through it again."
Carr sought clarity from HQ on a number of calls that went against his side last week, with NRL head of football Graham Annesley subsequently saying the officials had got the calls that raised Carr's ire correct.
It's not a call Carr intends to make this time around.
"No I won't. I'm over it to be honest with you," he said.
"I sought some feedback from last week's game, I've got no problem with the feedback that I get, but what am I getting feedback for? They're going to tell me that it was a strip and we should have scored the try? That doesn't help me, it doesn't help the Dragons. It's gone.
"I'm not going to sit here and definitively say 'we win the game' but jeez it helps. I won't know the outcome, but obviously we lost by six. Momentum's a big thing because then it not only was a [disallowed] try, it was a penalty to Parra which flipped field position.
"There were things late in that game where, I won't go into detail, but we didn't get a penalty from the 29th minute in that game. That was our last penalty.
"Are we going to get the rub of the green next time? I don't know, but the boys deserved to win the game today."
In an otherwise forthright take, Carr trod carefully when asked if he felt teams lower on the ladder struggled to get 50-50 calls.
"It's a dangerous line that one, I'm not going buy into it," he said.
"We shouldn't be talking about it. We're not talking about the good game of footy where two teams are throwing everything at it. Parra threw everything at it, full credit to them.
"They had everything to play for, but so did we, and it was a great game of footy. As a fan, you'd want to watch that game today, but we're sitting here talking about that.
"I'm sitting in there and the players are saying sorry to me. They're frustrated, they're confused. It's a brutal game, rugby league, and when I've got a team that's thrown their absolute everything into trying to get a win for our team and our club and they're asking me... I said 'boys, I don't know, I haven't got the answers for you'.
"I'll keep fighting for them but it's ridiculous. I say, ridiculous, I'll probably get memed again and that's all right. It's just stupid that we're talking about it."
Regardless of the result, it was a courageous effort from the undermanned Dragons, who lost Francis Molo to a head knock just minutes into the contest. Through the adversity, Carr said he couldn't have asked for anything more.
"I thought our effort was one of the best efforts I've ever seen from a team to be honest with you," Carr said.
"We lost a few players last week, Suls (Moses Suli) was out and we lost de Belin so it's a real next man up mentality. We lost Frank Molo in the first set of the game, some of our players had to play massive minutes.
"It just throws everything out of whack when you lose a forward in interchange role there. I thought we were super brave, tough, resilient. I know the scoreboard doesn't show it, but we deserved to win that one. I couldn't be prouder of them."
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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.
