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The NRL has admitted Raiders fullback Chevy Stewart was offside before his game-saving chargedown of what could have been a game-winning field goal in golden point against the Gold Coast.
Titans coach Des Hasler took aim at what he described as "pretty poor" refereeing in his team's 21-20 loss in Canberra on Sunday night.
Hasler described the loss as "heartbreaking" and particularly criticised the officials for allowing Stewart to charge down Kieran Foran's shot at field goal early in the second period of extra time.
The debutant shot off the tryline to block Foran's shot, with Hasler saying after the game he looked "a good metre offside".
NRL football boss Graham Annesley said Stewart was undeniably offside.
"That was an error and should have been picked up by the touch judges monitoring the 10 metres," he said on Monday.
"It's a miss by the match officials."
Hasler queried why the bunker did not pick it up on review as the video referee reviews every scoring play in games, but they cannot make rulings on the defensive 10m line for the same reasons the bunker does not pass judgment on forward passes.
Annesley said referee Kasey Badger should have signalled six more tackles, but if that had happened and Foran still attempted the field goal, the Titans likely would have received a penalty right in front of the posts because they did not get any advantage.
While that may make Hasler feel justified in his complaints, statistics revealed by Annesley suggested the Titans, while penalised more frequently than the Raiders, also got away with being offside in defence almost three times more often than their opponents.
That backs up claims from Ricky Stuart, who applauded his team for not getting frustrated by the Titans' wrestling in the ruck.
"F***. He's on another planet," Stuart said of Hasler's complaints about the refereeing.
"If he's critical of the six-agains and the penalties, he's on another planet.
"He coached well, but the way they cheated with hands on the ball [in tackles], the way they cheated on the ground."
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