Warriors coach Andrew Webster raged at referee Gerard Sutton after a bizarre first half incident proved crucial in his side’s 10-8 defeat to the Sharks.
A shot clock penalty was awarded in the 18th minute when the buzzer rang before Chanel Harris-Tavita took a drop out.
The Wahs star was left confused by the decision as with two seconds remaining Sutton could be heard telling him “five seconds remaining”.
When the buzzer then went, Sutton stepped in to award the penalty, with Wahs players crowding around him to protest that he had indicated the wrong amount of time remaining.
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When questioned, Sutton told the Wahs: “That’s not my problem. If the buzzer goes and you haven’t kicked it, it’s a penalty.”
Webster has ruthlessly hit out at the call during his post-match press conference, revealing Harris-Tavita asked how long was left due to the big screen showing an advertisement.
The Wahs coach said: “It was a dropout. Chanel says to the referee there was an advertisement on the screen. He says, ‘Ref, how long have I got? I can’t see the clock’. He says, ‘You’ve got five seconds’.
“He kicks it in two and as he’s kicking it, the siren goes off, blows his whistle, gives a penalty, two points straight in front. And then they question, and he says, ‘Not my fault’.
“So (it) gifted them two points because professionalism around they don’t even know how long to go.”
An infuriated Webster continued: “When you ask the question, because you can’t see it on the clock, and the response is, ‘You’ve got five seconds’, and you kick it in two… I never blow up. That’s embarrassing.
“If the referee tells you you’ve got five seconds and you kick it in two. Five minus two is three. They’ve got three seconds left… when the referee tells you that, and then he’s the one that penalises you, surely common sense is let’s do a re-do there. Something’s gone wrong, or you say just play on. Common sense.
Defeat to the Sharks leaves the Warriors six points adrift of leaders Penrith, and just two ahead of the Knights in seventh.
And while Webster was happy to give the Sharks credit for their performance, he also took one final jibe at the ref Sutton for what he believes was unprofessionalism.
He said: “The Sharks were awesome tonight. Both teams were awesome. But you just don’t need this.
“If someone makes a bad refereeing decision or a call, they thought it was forward and it wasn’t, that stuff happens.
“But when we can’t even get the game clock right, I don’t know, that’s just the most unprofessional thing for the game I’ve ever seen.”
Originally published as Coach explodes at ‘most unprofessional thing’ after bizarre decision