Parramatta Eels coach Brad Arthur says he will seek clarity with referees' boss Tony Archer following Corey Norman's contentious interference sin-binning against the Cowboys on Saturday night.
Norman was given 10 minutes in the bin for a professional foul, interfering with Cowboys five-eighth Michael Morgan in pursuit of a grubber kick in the 66th minute.
Had it not been for Norman's interference Morgan would have likely been first to the in-goal grubber. The Cowboys were subsequently awarded a penalty and Norman given a 10-minute break.
It is not the first time a player has been sin-binned for interfering a kick-chaser in recent weeks, with Melbourne Storm centre Richard Kennar sent for 10 after impeding Wests Tigers second-rower Chris Lawrence in last week's thriller at Leichhardt Oval.
The other incident came in Round 5 where Warrior Ryan Hoffman was grabbed by the shirt and stopped from getting to a Jeff Robson grubber kick by Rooster Aidan Guerra, who was penalised for the play but not sent from the field.
Considering how big an impact sin-binning has on a game, Arthur wants answers as to how the play will be officiated in the future.
"I just need to ask [Tony Archer] what the ruling is and if it is going to happen continually," he said.
"It's disappointing, with 14 or 15 minutes to go, that we couldn’t see two really good teams fight it out to see who could get on top at the end.
"Everyone has been robbed of a good game of football."
The game was entirely in the balance over the first 70 minutes before the Cowboys kicked into gear late.
Down 14-0 going into half-time the Eels ramped up their efforts to force four Cowboy errors in the period's first 20 minutes, including a couple of runaway Semi Radradra and Michael Jennings tries off turnovers.
Up 16-14 at the time of Norman's sin-binning, the Eels were left to rue the chances they had as North Queensland made full use of Parramatta's 12 men to sprint away with the win.
Eels captain Kieran Foran said it was one that slipped away.
"We felt like we were coming on top of them," he said.
"We were really positive at half-time, we knew that if we hung in there the game would turn. Our effort was great tonight, and that's what got us back into the game.
"We really felt like we could have come away with the win."
