Officials Admit Robert Toia Try Was Wrong Call

Gold Coast Titans coach Josh Hannay said NRL officials told him robert toia’s 30th-minute try should not have stood against the Gold Coast Titans. The bunker decision followed a review in a match that ended with another disputed try in the 37th minute.

Josh Hannay and Adam Gee

Hannay said officials approached him after the match and told him the call on Toia was wrong. “We’ve already had some officials come and tell us that it was the wrong call,” he said.

He added: “I don’t know how you look at it, slow it down. I was looking at the same pictures, so I just don’t know how you get that wrong.”

Adam Gee, the bunker official, had upheld the try despite replays that suggested Toia lost the ball while grounding it. Hannay said the same technology that reviewed the play should have produced a different result: “It’s hard to get the decision right (when it is) live all the time but when you have the technology we have in the game today, I just don’t understand how they sort of ruled that a try.”

Tino Fa’asuamaleaui on the call

Tino Fa’asuamaleaui said the play looked like a knock-on to him in real time. “I’m seeing that in front of me and at the time that’s why I approached the ref was because it looked (like) a knock-on in my opinion,” he said.

He said his role after that was to settle the Titans group rather than let the moment carry forward. “But my job was to re-group the group and make sure that we get into our next job. I didn’t want to take that energy back to the group and before you know it, the game’s done.”

Fa’asuamaleaui also said: “In real time I saw it and thought it was a bit disappointing but I had to do a job.”

James Tedesco in the 37th

The controversy did not stop with Toia. James Tedesco scored in the 37th minute, and Titans fullback Keano Kini claimed Daniel Tupou illegally denied him the chance to tackle Tedesco.

Hannay said that second try should stand. “To me, that was sort of inadvertent. He couldn’t get out of the way, couldn’t disappear,” he said. “He wasn’t running an obstruction for anyeon, so it was just a challenge fore Keano to get around him but that’s play on there.”

For the Titans, the practical issue is the same one Hannay raised after the match: a bunker call can be revisited in conversation after the whistle, but the try still counts on the scoreboard. That left the club with an admission from officials and no change to the result from the play that drew it.