‘Something has happened’: Buzz’s ‘sneaking suspicion’ on Raiders’ refereeing blitz after Manly flogging

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart teed off at officiating in his side’s 40-12 loss to the Sea Eagles on Sunday, and veteran rugby league reporter Phil Rothfield proposed a bold theory.

Manly were awarded seven set restarts to one, had a try disallowed due to a dubious obstruction and also had Corey Horsburgh sent to the sin bin in the 20th minute.

“I’m not allowed to talk about the ref but I hope Andrew Abdo has an answer for us all,” Stuart said in his post-match press conference.

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“I don’t think there’s a football team in the competition that’s going to defend at those statistics and win.”

The Raiders got their season off to a flying start with impressive wins over the Warriors and Broncos, but Rothfield was of the belief the microscope was placed on Canberra’s defence.

“You know what I reckon has happened, the Raiders when they beat the Warriors and they beat the Broncos, they went in with a Penrith mindset,” he said on NRL360 on Monday.

“Without the Penrith skill, but a Penrith mindset to swarm and show line speed in defence... really get in the opposition’s face.

Phil Rothfield offered a left-field opinion as to why the Raiders got the wrong end of the stick against the Sea Eagles. Source: FOX SPORTS

“There’s a sneaking suspicion I have that someone from one of those clubs has said to the NRL to keep an eye on the Raiders.

“It would have to be (a coach)... I think something has happened. Coaches ring the football department all the time.

“It almost to me looked preconceived they were already going to have a strong look at the Raiders.”

The sheer mount of six-agains blown by on-field referee Grant Atkins also proved to further fatigue a Raiders side making a mountain of tackles.

Canberra were forced to make 180 more tackles than their opponents, which forced the set restart count to “spiral out of control”.

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“This is the problem with the six-again rule, it becomes a succession of six-agains because a team gets fatigued,” The Australian’s Brent Read said.

“Manly dominates possession, Canberra tries to slow things down and then more six-agains are given.

“We have games like this every year, and it just spirals out of control.”

Meanwhile, an obstruction decision ruled out an early Sebastian Kris try, which also stunned Stuart after Corey Horsburgh bumped into Daly Cherry-Evans.

“What did you think of the decision to have our try disallowed? After 20 minutes of having no football, we get a set around halfway and score a wonderful try,” he said.

“It’s really difficult coaching when you don’t know the rules and don’t know the interpretations because I’ve got no idea.”

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For Rothfield, the fact Stuart was left confused by the rulings was shocking, considering he was one of three coaches who made changes to the Bunker’s decision-making in the off-season.

“Ricky is held in such high regard by the NRL, they picked three coaches to come in and talk obstruction, how to police it and make it better,” Rothfield said.

“Ricky, Wayne Bennett and Ivan Cleary... he was in that meeting making decisions where they wanted to put the emphasis on players to defend rather than dive.

“So for him to be in that meeting for two or three hours, make a rule altercation and for him to say afterwards he did not understand the decision.

“What hope do the 14 other coaches who were not there have.”

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