{"id":590494,"date":"2026-04-07T04:02:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/590494\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T04:02:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:02:14","slug":"nrl-news-why-mitchell-moses-didnt-challenge-divisive-decision-that-cost-the-parramatta-eels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/590494\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news: Why Mitchell Moses didn&#8217;t challenge divisive decision that cost the Parramatta Eels"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">There were a number of controversial calls in the game between the Wests Tigers and the Eels and it has been revealed why <a data-i13n=\"cpos:1;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/au.news.yahoo.com\/nrl-fans-unhappy-with-mitchell-moses-act-towards-referee-in-brutal-loss-to-wests-tigers-000301901.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:Mitchell Moses;cpos:1;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;Mitchell Moses&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mitchell Moses<\/a> didn&#8217;t challenge one pivotal moment. The Wests Tigers&#8217; win over the Eels was as <a data-i13n=\"cpos:2;pos:1\" href=\"https:\/\/au.news.yahoo.com\/parramatta-eels-dudded-by-unpopular-rule-in-golden-point-after-nrl-legend-calls-for-change-215350497.html\" data-ylk=\"slk:controversial as NRL games come;cpos:2;pos:1;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;\" data-yga=\"{&quot;yLinkPosition&quot;:&quot;2&quot;,&quot;yLinkElement&quot;:&quot;context_link&quot;,&quot;yPosition&quot;:&quot;1&quot;,&quot;yModuleName&quot;:&quot;content-canvas&quot;,&quot;yLinkText&quot;:&quot;controversial as NRL games come&quot;,&quot;yHasCommerce&quot;:false}\" class=\"link  yahoo-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">controversial as NRL games come<\/a> with Dylan Walker giving away a penalty for being offside as Jock Madden went for the match-winning field goal.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">There was also another controversial moment that had Moses in disbelief. Williams made a break down the right touch line, before being dragged down agonisingly short. Although it was unclear if there was a hand on Williams on the ground with Tigers bodies lying everywhere.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Mitchell Moses (pictured right) revealed why he didn't challenge this pivotal call on Jack Williams (pictured left). (Images: Fox Sports\/Getty Images)\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/b84e0760-322b-11f1-a7bf-cc7fe40b2f1b.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mitchell Moses (pictured right) revealed why he didn&#8217;t challenge this pivotal call on Jack Williams (pictured left). (Images: Fox Sports\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Williams got up, but the Tigers ripped it out of his hands thinking he was going for a try. Moses was confused and spoke to the referee about the chaos. Fans were also up-in-arms about the situation with many feeling Williams was playing the ball.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">This could have been a professional foul on a Tigers player from stopping Williams. Others felt Williams wasn&#8217;t tackled and the Tigers defenders had every right to make a second play at the Eels forward.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">However, the ruling went the Tigers way with Eels fans fuming. Moses then wanted to challenge the decision because it was a stop in play. The Eels captain felt his teammate was playing the ball and it was a penalty against the Tigers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Referee Peter Gough then explained to Moses why he shouldn&#8217;t challenge. Gough revealed he hadn&#8217;t actually called &#8216;held&#8217; and the tackle was not complete. This meant in theory Williams could have jumped back over the line and scored.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Mitchell Moses speaks to referee Peter Gough.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/61c44ec0-3200-11f1-a5cf-6e9c0e2dc448.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Mitchell Moses (pictured) had a number of interactions with referee Peter Gough.<\/p>\n<p>(Darrian Traynor via Getty Images)Mitchell Moses on referee decision<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Speaking after the game, Moses agreed he didn&#8217;t challenge because the referee claimed he never yelled held. Although, the Eels halfback suggested it could also have been deemed a double movement if he went for the try.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;Well, he felt like he was held and had about four players on him,&#8221; Moses said about Williams. &#8220;So he has tried to get up and play the ball. And blokes came flying in. So I asked to challenge it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Moses added: &#8220;He said he hadn&#8217;t called held yet. So there was no point in challenging it because I was never going to win it. I don&#8217;t know&#8230;.he pretty much told me not to challenge it.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Coach Jason Ryles then interjected: &#8220;But if he scored, it would have been a double movement.&#8221; And Moses was baffled. &#8220;That&#8217;s what I am saying, if he had a crack&#8230;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; he said. But both agreed that wasn&#8217;t the reason why the team lost with their Eels&#8217; performance not good enough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">At the time of the play, Cooper Cronk felt Williams was going to attempt and score again if given the opportunity. &#8220;I thought Gough was right, it looked like Williams was trying to promote the ball to score,&#8221; he said on Fox Sports commentary. Although many fans still didn&#8217;t accept the ruling. Many felt Williams was in a tough situation where whatever decision he made was going to impact his side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There were a number of controversial calls in the game between the Wests Tigers and the Eels and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,4508,22326,761,762,158,287795,85,27096,4515],"class_list":{"0":"post-590494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-jack-williams","11":"tag-mitchell-moses","12":"tag-national-rugby-league","13":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","14":"tag-nrl","15":"tag-peter-gough","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-the-eels","18":"tag-wests-tigers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=590494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}