Queensland coach Phil Mooney believes the rebuilding Reds are still suffering from their forgettable 2007 season, especially at the hands of Super 14 officials.

A proud but disappointed Mooney was fuming after Saturday night's 32-20 loss to the Chiefs in Hamilton due to the "perceptions" South African referee Craig Joubert had of last season's wooden-spooners.

The rookie coach was most upset fullback Clinton Schifcofske was sin-binned for the Reds' first professional foul, while the Chiefs were guilty of several cynical indiscretions but Joubert kept the yellow card in his pocket.

Lock Van Humphries was also denied a 73rd-minute try from a pick and drive after the television match official said the video footage was inconclusive.

The five-pointer would have seen the Reds 32-25 down with a conversion to come, giving them two bonus points as well as a chance to steal a late upset.

"There's certainly a perception problem for us amongst officials," he said.

"They infringed six times when we were attacking and no-one got yellow-carded.

"We got a guy sin-binned and (received hardly any) 50-50 calls. The boys reckon with that pick and drive (Humphries) got the ball down.

"That would have given us two bonus points for scoring four tries and finishing within seven points.

"But I'm very proud. We lost guys through injury and we showed a lot of resolve and we kept backing ourselves."

Even with three men injured, the Reds stormed back from 24-3 down at halftime to trail by just four after scoring three tries in 12 minutes.

Mooney is facing a halfback crisis with Ben Lucas (knee) joining captain Sam Cordingley (calf) on the sidelines while energetic replacement Will Genia playing superbly on a gamy ankle.

Winger Peter Hynes is also set to miss Friday night's clash with the Blues at Suncorp Stadium due to an ankle injury but Digby Ioane presents as a wonderful replacement after he was a second-half livewire at Waikato Stadium.

The Chiefs struggled to wrap up the jinking speedster in his comeback from a broken finger. Ioane scored one try and sparked another brilliant counter-attacking five-pointer to Morgan Turinui.

"Digby was the human pinball," Mooney said. "He had a lot of pent-up injury having so long on the sidelines so he's pretty happy to get out there and release some of it."

Playing against the province of his birth, playmaker Quade Cooper produced a mixed bag, throwing some beautiful pin-point passes but let himself down with some loose play and conceding a second-half penalty goal.

The inside ball proved to be a key weapon for the Reds as they cut the defence at will in the second half but failed to capitalise on enough opportunities.

"To be honest we didn't do it enough," Mooney said. "Quade probably played with too much width on occasions.

"I don't know if impetuous is the word but a 20-year-old needs to develop a little more awareness in his game."

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