Canberra coach Ricky Stuart was blunt in his assessment of the standard of officiating in his side's 34-31 loss to the New Zealand Warriors – saying he could not comment on how he really felt for fear of being fined by the NRL.
The decision most likely to come under scrutiny was the highly suspicious final pass to Ben Murdoch-Masila for his 59th-minute try, with the Warriors forward reaching far in front of him to catch the pass from Kodi Nikorima.
Stuart did not answer any questions in his post-match press conference apart from praising the courageous effort of his team, which played with only one healthy player on the bench for close to 70 minutes.
"I came here because it's my job, I respect the fact you've got a job and I have got 20,000 [dollars] hanging over my head," Stuart said.
"If I don't turn up here tonight I get fined, if all of the fine money was going to the Ricky Stuart Foundation I would tell you the truth today because then the money is going to best cause I know of.
"I can't tell you the truth because I'll get fined, I'm not going to answer any questions, I've done my job."
Match Highlights: Raiders v Warriors
Despite the heart-wrenching loss, which was only further exacerbated when Jordan Rapana was denied a match-winning try in the last eight seconds, Stuart said it was the toughest team performance he had ever seen in his coaching career.
"In all my years of coaching, I've never been involved in a greater team performance," he said.
"From whatever minute it was when we only had one player on the interchange bench, I have never seen a group of individuals, given we were down to 14, play so well but yet play to such adversity and play for each other.
"I know it's in us and after tonight I know even more it's in us.
"I've got a winning team in there, we didn't get the points tonight, but I know which changeroom I would prefer coaching tonight and that's in my changeroom."
The game was on a knife's edge despite the Raiders shocking early injury toll, which saw Joe Tapine (ankle), Ryan James and Sebastian Kris (both HIA) all ruled out of the rest of the game.
Curtis Scott picked up a rib injury early and played through the pain, despite not able to have any pain-relief at half-time.
Three tries in 10 minutes saw the Raiders jump out to an amazing a 25-6 half-time given the circumstances, lead with Ryan Sutton, Sia Soliola and George Williams scoring.
But the injury toll caught up with them in the second term with the Warriors staging a fightback, and a diving Roger Tuivasa-Sheck try-saver denied Jordan Rapana what would have been a match-winning try in the final seconds.
Defy Impossible: RTS serves up a match-saving tackle of his own
