Dolphins' coach Wayne Bennett has revealed he will be waiting for an apology from the NRL's head of football Graham Annesley after a controversial finish in golden point to their clash against the Canberra Raiders on Saturday evening.
The Dolphins ultimately came up short by a single point in the game against the Raiders on the back of a Jordan Rapana field goal, but that wasn't before earlier controversy.
A pair of Raiders' high shots went unpenalised before, in golden point, the Dolphins looked to have slotted a winning field goal through Jamayne Isaako, only for Peter Gough in the bunker to inform referee Adam Gee that Max Plath had performed an illegal blocking action.
After more frustration for the Dolphins with poor attacking sets leading to missed field goal shots, Rapana would step up to ice the game.
The Dolphins argued on-field immediately afterwards that Jeremy Marshall-King - moving to shut down Rapana - had been illegally blocked by the Raiders, but Gough found no issue with it and cleared the field goal, seeing the Raiders take a 26-25 field goal after both teams had kicked one-pointers to force the game into extra time.
Bennett said that while the decision can't be changed now, he would expect an apology to give his players answers.
โWell you have to wait on Monday [when] Graham Annelsey gives his report on the mistakes they made,โ he said during the post-game press conference.
โNothing is going change. I accept that. But my players deserve answers.
โTwo players knocked out tonight, no reports, no penalties. Both were head highs and they both had to go off the field.
โThey had a look at a couple of thing out there but they didn't change their mind.
โBoth times they get sent by the doctor because they've been hit in the head.โ
Ricky Stuart wasn't quizzed on the decisions in his post-match press conference, but admitted his side continually let the Dolphins back into the game before coming away with the win.
The Dolphins remain fourth on the provisional NRL ladder, while the Raiders have joined them on 16 competition points, but are behind on for and against.
