NRL head of football Graham Annesley believes Raiders winger Bailey Simonsson was wrongly sin-binned in Saturday night's loss to the Storm, conceding the Bunker was guilty of "over-analysing".
Canberra were left a man short when Simonsson was deemed to have illegally interfered with Melbourne flyer Josh Addo-Carr while jostling for a grubber kick in the 27th minute.
Addo-Carr quickly scored a crucial try in Simonsson's 10-minute absence. The Storm went on to win 20-14 at GIO Stadium despite the match finishing three tries apiece.
"In my opinion we got this one wrong," Annesley said on Sunday of the Simonsson call.
"Both players were scrambling for the ball and in that situation there was always going to be some sort of contact, but I don't believe there was any intent to take Josh Addo-Carr out.
Stuart: No way Simonsson should have been sent to the bin
"I think the Bunker is over-analysing these incidents from a technical point of view, instead of just looking at incidents from a fan’s perspective to decide what most people would consider a fair and reasonable decision."
Raiders coach Ricky Stuart was baffled by the sin-binning and shared his frustrations in the post-match media conference.
"We should never have been a man down, there is no way in the world he should've been sent to the sin bin," Stuart said.
"I don't want to make a big issue of it but I just don't understand how we use all this technology and money [but] still get it wrong.
"There was no way Bailey Simonsson should've been sent from the field when he was going for the football as well. They got it wrong, simple as that.
"Like they did in the Manly game [last week], but they'll be back in the box again next week."
To make matter worse for the Raiders, Simonsson and teammate Josh Hodgson were ruled out for the remainder of the 2020 season on Sunday.
Hodgson suffered an ACL injury while Simonsson suffered a serious shoulder injury.
