Canberra Raiders' head coach Ricky Stuart has continued his tirade against the NRL, referees and the officiating process, but refused to blame Grant Atkins for some dubious decisions in his side's loss to the Manly Sea Eagles on Saturday.
In the game - which Manly ultimately ran away with to the tune of 46 points to 24 - the Raiders had a disallowed try for Adam Cook where a decision was made that he had knocked on in live play.
Cook would have ran away to score after a captain's challenge with the bunker ruled he had in fact kicked the ball, but because play on-field had already been stopped, the try wasn't allowed to stand.
Stuart said he wouldn't blame Atkins but labelled it a 'poor miss'.
โI'm not going to blame it... I don't know if you put it down as a turning point, but it's, um, a really important part of the game there," Stuart said during his post-match press conference.
โWe go ahead and go into halftime with a lead, but I'm not going to blame Grant Atkins for that but it was a poor miss.โ
Stuart took further aim at the decision which saw Jamal Fogarty seemingly lifted dangerously in a tackle, only for a penalty not to be blown.
Stuart said the referees were confused by the noise from people in his ear over the years - Stuart didn't name names, but it appeared he was talking about the head of referees Jared Maxwell, and the head of elite competitions Graham Annesley, who has come under fierce criticism in recent times for his weekly footy briefings.
โI don't blame the referee for that, I blame the people that are in his ear,โ Stuart said.
โI've heard those people in his ears. You get confused as a referee, with all the noise. Which is why I don't blame Grant on the other decision, albeit he should have let it roll on.
โIt's all the noise. It's the messages that they're getting that are confusing refs. I've said that for years and years and years.โ
