NRL 2019: Warriors coach Stephen Kearney unloads on 'very ordinary' referees after controversial Eels defeat

Furious Warriors coach Stephen Kearney has reached his boiling point after questionable refereeing decisions cost his team victory against the Parramatta Eels on Saturday. 

The major talking point after the 24-22 defeat was how the Warriors were on the wrong side of a 9-2 penalty count at BankWest Stadium in Western Sydney. 

On top of that, a potential game-winning Warriors try was called off due to a forward pass, although replays clearly showed the ball went backwards. 

While Kearney was disappointed with the try being called off, he was more annoyed the one-sided penalty count as some of the decisions led to the Eels scoring points. 

The Eels weren't penalised once between the 10th minute and the 80th minute, while the Warriors were hit with nine straight. 

Replays showed a couple of the penalties against the Warriors were wrong.

At the post-game conference, Kearney took a deep breath before unloading on "very ordinary" refereeing performances of Chris Sutton and Chris Butler. 

"If you have watched me over the last two-and-a-half years, I don't care too much for blaming," said Kearney. "You just sound like a whinging coach. 

"[But] the penalty count was 9-1 with 30 seconds to go. It makes your job really hard.

"I thought it was very ordinary. We could have been better in certain areas - I won't hide from the fact that we need to be better - but our roles were made really hard.

"If they can't get it right, which it was pretty comprehensive today that they couldn't, just leave it like it was.

"If you can't rule on it, and you can't make a decision on it, just piss it off, fair dinkum."

Kearney's frustrations were not over yet as a forward pass call at the death robbed the Warriors of a go-ahead try with three minutes remaining. Captain Roger Tuivasa-Sheck danced his way through defenders and sent a one-handed flick pass out to Gerard Beale who raced over the line, only for the referees to bring the play back. 

"I had a call during the week... I had two tries that were given tries last week which were no tries after the fact from Cronulla... they jump all over Roger's play... the inconsistency, you can tell I'm pretty frustrated with it all.

"You saw it all yourselves. Cronulla scored two tries last week that were no tries.

"In the back of my mind, I thought it was going to come down to costing teams and clubs. I don't think it'll be the end of that, I think there'll be some decisions that'll cost clubs in the next few weeks given that it's a tight competition.

"We've been dealing with it for a while, and we will keep dealing with it. We have to own our performance, I thought we had enough opportunities to get a result."

Kearney's comments about the referees costing teams a finals berth was interesting as if the Warriors had won, they would have moved back inside the NRL's top eight for the first time since round three - though their stay would have been short-lived following the Brisbane Broncos' commanding win over the Gold Coast Titans later on Saturday. 

But add this result in with the one against Melbourne in round seven, where a penalty against the Warriors (which NRL head of football Graham Annesley said was 50/50, but went against the Warriors) led to the Storm tying the match and subsequently winning the game. 

So there is a case the Warriors have been robbed of four competition points, and they could be sitting comfortably inside the top eight with six games remaining - instead they're 12th on the NRL ladder. 

Earlier this month, three game-changing decisions went against the Warriors in their match against the Newcastle Knights, but luckily the Warriors scraped home to a 24-20 win. 

Despite the calls, Kearey said he was proud of the way his team fronted, and the Warriors now have a short turnaround ahead of Friday's game against the Canberra Raiders in Auckland. 

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