Graham Annesley's admission that the Gold Coast Titans should have received a penalty during the thrilling conclusion to their clash against the Parramatta Eels on Sunday evening has not gone down well with the club's interim coach Jim Lenihan.
Just a week after NRL officials made what was deemed to be the correct call in penalising Erin Clark to allow the Dolphins a golden point win, the Eels were well offside and not penalised for the same thing, impacting the Titans in the eventual one-point loss.
Annesley, who is the NRL's head of football, said on Monday during his weekly footy briefing that he couldn't defend the decision.
โLast week I stood here and defended referees for making a strong call on players who were offside when there was a field goal attempted that would have determined the outcome of the game,โ he said during his briefing.
โUnfortunately, this week I can't mount the same defence for the officials.
โYou can see that they're at least one step or a metre over the goal line as the ball clears the ruck, which places them offside.
โThere's no doubt in this particular incident that the touch judge on the near side should have called those players offside.
โWhen they went through and the ball was charged down by Lane, the referee should have penalised him on the advice of the touch judge, but that advice didn't come.
โThere are many times I stand here and defend the decisions of the match officials, but you can't defend it when it's obviously wrong.โ
It didn't please Lenihan though, who has his side now in dire position as they attempt to qualify for the finals.
Lenihan told AAP that he wasn't happy.
"It is hard to swallow, really hard to swallow," Lenihan told AAP.
"What can I do about it? They are certainly not going to give me two competition points which is what we are playing 80 minutes of football for.
"I am certainly not happy about this. We are working hard to be a club that won't be bullied on the field or off the field."
The Titans face a difficult run to the finish line in 2023 with games against the Sydney Roosters, North Queensland Cowboys, New Zealand Warriors, Cronulla Sharks, Penrith Panthers and Melbourne Storm across the next six weeks before they play the Canterbury Bulldogs in the final round of the season.
They will likely need to win at least six, if not all seven to qualify for the finals in what will be the final stretch for the club before Des Hasler takes over as head coach from the start of the 2024 season.
