Wests Tigers head coach Michael Maguire has called adjudicators into question after a first-half Luciano Leilua try attempt was not sent for review despite the game being in the balance.
With Wests Round 2 clash against the New Zealand Warriors hung in the balance at 6-apiece, Leilua chased down a Luke Brooks ball into the in-goal area and appeared to have dotted the Steeden down ahead of Chanel Harris-Tavita's trailing boot.
However, not only was the 25-year-old denied a four-pointer, the play wasn't even halted, with the Warriors marching the ball back to their 20 for a re-start.
WATCH: Was Luciano Leilua robbed of a try?
Given the contest at Campbelltown between the previously 0-2 teams ended at 16-12 in the visitor's favour, Maguire couldn't hide his bemusement at the noted 'no-call'.
“Yeah, I just don’t understand that. I really don’t understand,” Maguire said.
“When you’ve got that much technology in our game that you can’t go back and see it. It’s ridiculous really.
“They’re big moments for teams that are going through a period like we are. The game changes as we know and yeah, we had an opportunity at the back end. But it changes the mentality within a game.
“And that’s why we have technology to be able to work through those things.”
While desperate for his side's first victory since August 14, 2021, the embattled steward claimed he believed Leilua had been successful in his lunge over the line.
“It looked like a try to me,” he said.
“That is a game-changer right there, it is scoreboard pressure.
“The medical people seem to be able to pick out things a lot better than what you saw there. Last week we had two HIAs, which I get they’ve got to go through the processes and iron them out.
“But once again, technology in a moment in the game got us. We’ve got people spotting those sorts of things, and they go back to passages in games, five or six minutes or whatever it was last week, and we get a player taken off, their player stays on, but they can’t go and check that."
SEE ALSO: A Michael Maguire rebuttal: Brooks' time for potential and rep footy has come and gone
The 2014 premiership coach continued by stressing that for a side that has spent a decade out of the finals race and with a horror run ahead of them, a Leilua try, and a subsequent win, would have been huge for Wests.
“They’ve got to get them right. They’re big things for teams like us," Maguire added.
"We’ve got nine sitting on the sideline that could be playing first grade at the moment, and we don’t jump up and down about those sorts of things because we’re committing ourselves, and we don’t want to look at those sorts of things.
“But that moment they are changes the outcome of where we ended up tonight.”
While victory will remain out of reach, Maguire can feel vindicated after NRL head of football Graham Annesley claimed referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski had made "the wrong call" on Friday night.
“He (Przeklasa-Adamski) thought he saw it clearly and made a judgment call,’’ Annesley told The Daily Telegraph.
“He didn’t think it was as close as what it ultimately turned out to be.
“He thought he was in a good position, had a clear view of it and made the call.
“He was wrong. He should’ve referred the decision, he didn’t refer to it and we’ll never know what decision the bunker would’ve made.
“But that doesn’t in any way detract from the fact that it should’ve been referred."
Despite admitting the blunder, Annesley went into bat for the inexperienced adjudicator, claiming that an expectation of perfection was out of the question.
“By no means am I trying to justify it, but he’s only in his third game as a single referee, but the only way people get experience is to bring them into play – much like a player," he continued.
“He’s going to learn a pretty hard lesson out of this, a self-inflicted lesson because he’s doing it quite tough this morning, knowing full-well he’s made the wrong call.
“I know that is no consolation to anyone that is a Tigers official, fan or player, but he realises his error.
“No one goes out there trying to make errors.’’
The Tigers will now dust themselves off ahead of a six-week stretch of respective fixtures against the Titans, Sharks, Eels, Rabbitohs, Dragons and Sea Eagles.
Their date with Justin Holbrook's side is scheduled for Thursday, March 31 at Cbus Super Stadium.
What concerns me more than the referee not referring the “try” to the bunker, is that the staff in the bunker did not review it, as a matter of course. What else are they doing while the kicking tee is coming out and the conversion is being set up?
Would it not be possible (let alone, sensible) for the guys in the bunker to have the commentary from one of the media outlets playing in the background? I listened to the match on MMM and the commentary team questioned the referee’s decision almost immediately.
In my opinion, the bunker staff were at fault, more than the referee.
By using the technology available, the mis-call could have been identified and overturned easily, and we would not be having this conversation today.