{"id":676913,"date":"2026-05-17T15:06:25","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T15:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/676913\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T15:06:25","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T15:06:25","slug":"nrl-news-2026-dragons-captain-damien-cook-fumes-after-bunker-decision-vs-panthers-video","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/676913\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026: Dragons captain Damien Cook fumes after Bunker decision vs Panthers, video"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a horror start to the year, Dragons<\/a> captain Damien Cook<\/a>‘s frustration completely boiled over in one controversial moment on Sunday night.<\/p>\n

Playing in his 250th game, the hooker looked to have scored a brilliant solo try in his side’s 28-6 loss against ladder-leaders Penrith<\/a> in the final game at Magic Round.<\/p>\n

With seconds ticking down until half time, Cook chipped ahead for himself and raced past some tired defenders, kicking it past Brian To’o to clean it up and score.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Latrell officially ruled out of Origin in crushing blow<\/a><\/p>\n

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READ MORE: Watson’s Origin axing confirmed by trip to PNG<\/a><\/p>\n

But as the dummy-half celebrated with his St George Illawarra teammates, Bunker official Grant Atkins intervened and overruled the on-field decision, citing that Cook had kicked the ball out of the hands of To’o after he had gained possession.<\/p>\n

The decision was relayed to Cook, who made his feelings clear to the on-field referee Jarrod Cole and pleaded his case, knowing full well it was too late.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Damien Cook argues after a no try decision.\u00a0Fox League<\/p>\n

“He doesn’t have possession, no way,” the Red V skipper yelled.<\/p>\n

Replays appeared to show Cook booted the ball simultaneously to To’o grabbing it.<\/p>\n

“You can understand the frustration,” Fox League commentator Dan Ginnane said.<\/p>\n

“You be the judge at home … that’s a massive decision.”<\/p>\n

Panthers fullback Dylan Edwards even conceded his side “got away with one” when he walked from the field at half time. <\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Speaking post-game, interim coach Dean Young<\/a> was asked about the decision.<\/p>\n

“What’s your thoughts on it?” he replied to journalist Christian Nicolussi, who then labelled the no try decision as a “howler” in response to Young.<\/p>\n

“It would have been nice to go in at half time 12-6 against the best team in the comp.<\/p>\n

“They [Penrith] certainly don’t need any help, because they’ve been the best team for the last five years – but I can’t control that.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Dean Young and Damien Cook speak to media after Magic Round.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

“Did it go up a try? They needed evidence to say it wasn’t a try. Who was in the Bunker?<\/p>\n

“It feels like there’s been some calls early in the season that didn’t go our way and could have made a difference. We’re not walking away from the responsibility of where we’re sitting, that’s on us – but we’re not getting the 50\/50s at the moment.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Cook was quizzed about his thoughts and revealed plenty of people at Suncorp Stadium agreed with him that it should have remained a try.<\/p>\n

“I’m a bit biased, but I thought it was a try,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Other people on the way in here said it was a try as well.<\/p>\n

“Just give the fans what they want. It’s massive – if we go in 12-6 against the best team in the competition, I feel like we deserved that.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Tom Jenkins bagged a double in the first half to give his side a 12-0 lead and the try for Cook would have made it a six-point margin at the break.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Tom Jenkins celebrates a try against the Dragons.\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

Isaiah Papali’i put the heavyweights 18-0 up early in the second half, but the Dragons showed some signs of life when Christian Tuipulotu scored out wide.<\/p>\n

But as they so often do, the Panthers strangled their rivals as To’o and Luke Garner put the result beyond doubt, extending their lead atop the NRL ladder.<\/p>\n

On the flip side, St George Illawarra remain winless after 10 games this season.<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, Moses Suli left the field with back spasms and young forward Hamish Stewart was forced off with a quad injury. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After a horror start to the year, Dragons captain Damien Cook‘s frustration completely boiled over in one controversial…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":676914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-676913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676913","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=676913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/676913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/676914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=676913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=676913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=676913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}