‘You can’t do that’: Barrett demands answers over ‘contentious’ Broncos tries
March 21, 2022 - 8:12AMBulldogs coach Trent Barrett will be seeking “some answers” from the NRL over two Broncos tries in his side’s 16-10 loss on Sunday.
The Bulldogs led 10-4 in the second half until Broncos gun Herbie Farnworth scored back-to-back tries.
The first of Farnworth’s tries came off a contentious strip. Bulldogs centre Braidon Burns was tackled to the ground by Farnworth and Payne Haas, while Albert Kelly may have had a hand in it as well.
Payne dropped off after Burns had hit the ground and Farnworth stripped the ball before running 50 metres to score while a confused Burns looked around.
“They’ll want to check it,” Fox League commentator Warren Smith said.
“There were three in the tackle initially, but they all dropped off, Farnworth ended up with it and he runs away to score for the Broncos.”
Fox League analyst Michael Ennis said it was “fine”. However, Smith said “Burns was on the ground going nowhere, you could make a case that the tackle was completed”.
The try was awarded.
The second controversial four-pointer came off a scrum when Kelly passed to Tesi Niu, who passed onto Farnworth to score. But Corey Oates seemed to have obstructed Burns.
“He makes minimal contact, he’s on the outside shoulder but will that be enough?” Ennis said.
The bunker gave the try the green light and the Broncos all of a sudden took the lead.
“That’s a big call,” Ennis added.
Barrett didn’t shy away in his post-game press conference and even brought up the two incidents himself.
“I thought we should have iced that game and we had our chances,” he said.
“The two tries, the strip — the contentious one — and the obstruction off the scrum.
“You can’t do that and that’ll be something we’ll need to get some answers on because I don’t coach the players to lie down… maybe I will now.”
Asked why he thinks the bunker allowed the second try, Barrett said: “I have no idea, but I’ll ask because he led with the outside shoulder at Braidon Burns.
“Okunbor thinks he’s got help coming but he didn’t. It’s in the rule book. You can’t do it and it cost us bad.”
Meanwhile, Broncos coach Kevin Walters conceded his side probably did get lucky with that call but believes they were also on the receiving end of some harsh calls.
“We probably got a little bit of luck there I guess. I know that ‘Oatesy’ did pull back on it… we’ll take that one, but could have gone the other way. We lost a couple (calls) as well tonight so I think it balances out in the end.” he said.
