Cameron Ciraldo, the Bulldogs coach, will be reaching out to NRL referees boss Jared Maxwell in the near future. He was left frustrated by several controversial calls during Friday’s 25-6 loss to Cronulla.
Ciraldo, who is usually calm after games, was taken aback by some of the decisions made at Shark Park by referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski. One such call involved a Canterbury no try when Braydon Trindall was blocked from reaching Viliame Kikau.
Despite their strong defense and competitive performance against the Sharks, the Bulldogs players pledged not to be intimidated as they were in the previous year.
Although the hosts secured the win with three second-half tries, Ciraldo believes the outcome could have been different if some close calls had gone their way.
Ciraldo expressed his frustration, saying, “I thought there were a lot of other calls that went against us. I’m going to seek clarification on some of them because there are just so many.”
The Sharks were fortunate not to have Briton Nikora sent off for a high tackle on Kikau. Another controversial moment occurred when Kikau’s try was disallowed because the referee obstructed the play.
Bulldogs captain Stephen Crichton believes Kikau would have scored regardless, saying, “I reckon even if he (the referee) wasn’t there, he would have scored anyway. Big ‘Kiks’ on someone 20 kilos lighter than him.”
Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon, while acknowledging his team’s need to defend better, commended their resilience as they maintained a clean sheet in the second half for the second consecutive week.
“I can see why Cam would be feeling like that, but he definitely got obstructed,” Fitzgibbon said.
