Elliot claims Panthers robbed, again - Sports News - Fanatics - the world's biggest events

Elliot claims Panthers robbed, again

By Melissa Woods 12/04/2009 11:16:16 AM Comments (0)

Penrith coach Matt Elliott believes poor refereeing has now robbed his team of two NRL victories this season, the last against Melbourne on Saturday night.

The Panthers went down 16-14, the same two point margin that they lost to against the Bulldogs in round two.

A "peeved" Elliott blamed contentious refereeing decisions by Tony Archer and Chris James for the narrow loss at Olympic Park.

"For the second time this year a result of our game was decided by decisions outside our control," he said after the match.

"That's twice this year.

"I was over the moon with their commitment to each other, their application in defence and I felt they deserved better."

Elliott questioned the decision to call back a try in the final 10 minutes when a pass to winger Shane Elford was ruled forward.

"There was also three penalties given away right under the sticks," he said.

"They could be wrong or right decisions, but they're going to be scrutinised that's for sure.

"I'm not sitting here accusing anyone but again at the end of the day there's decisions that were made that were the difference in the result of two very committed teams.

"It's my responsibility to these guys there that absolutely put every ounce of effort they had into the performance, to make sure that they were the right decisions so that we don't have to be disappointed again."

Elliott said the referees admitted they had erred late in the Bulldogs match and would wait to see if they did the same again.

"The refs have been great, they don't hide behind it when they make a mistake. I'll be interested to see what their review process is this time.

"But it cost us two points against the Bulldogs, no doubt about it, can't be argued.

"They've stuck their hand up on two late decisions (against the Bulldogs), I'll be interested to see what happens there.

"As I say I might look at them and go 'yeah, they got them right', but there's other things I need clarification on."

He said Storm players were standing up, holding the ball on a tackled player.

"If that's allowed I'd be really interested because we're going to be doing it."

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