{"id":715034,"date":"2026-06-04T15:36:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:36:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/715034\/"},"modified":"2026-06-04T15:36:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T15:36:54","slug":"nrl-news-2026-wayne-bennett-press-conference-edward-kosi-no-try-in-manly-sea-eagles-and-south-sydney-rabbitohs-clash-ben-trbojevic-knock-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/715034\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026| Wayne Bennett press conference; Edward Kosi no try in Manly Sea Eagles and South Sydney Rabbitohs clash; Ben Trbojevic knock-on"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rabbitohs<\/a> coach Wayne Bennett<\/a> has called for the Bunker to be abolished after his side copped two tough calls against Manly<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Souths winger Edward Kosi was denied a spectacular diving try in his side\u2019s 28-14 loss against the Sea Eagles and it wasn\u2019t the only decision that caused drama.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Edward Kosi was denied a try by the Bunker.\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

With Manly leading 10-8 in the second half<\/a>, Kosi finished an exchange of passes to put South Sydney in front. <\/p>\n

The winger\u2019s put-down was close to the line although on first look it appeared the belly of the ball had hit the grass before the white line.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey got a big piece of turf there,\u201d Cameron Smith<\/a> said on Nine. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a try,\u201d Smith continued when Andrew Johns<\/a> replied \u201cyou reckon?\u201d<\/p>\n

Referee Adam Gee then sent the decision to the Bunker<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Wyatt Raymond in the Bunker ruled the ball was up when the commentators thought it\u2019d hit the turf before then landing on the line. <\/p>\n

\u201c50\/50 that one, I thought that one was a try,\u201d Smith said while Brad Fittler<\/a> said \u201cit definitely touched the green before the white\u201d and thought it was a try.<\/p>\n

Minutes later, the Sea Eagles advanced the ball into attacking territory with Clayton Faulalo scoring. <\/p>\n

However, the replay showed in the play the ball before the try, Ben Trbojevic had bobbled the ball. <\/p>\n

\u201cToo much (sticky) spray,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

But the try was confirmed by the Bunker. <\/p>\n

\u201cSorry?,\u201d Smith responded. \u201cThat\u2019s a knock-on, that is a knock-on every single day of the week except for Thursday night at Foz Pines Park<\/a>.\u201dOnly a minute later, caller Mat Thompson noted Smith looked like he was in a state of shock.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t get over that knock-on, really,\u201d he responded.<\/p>\n

Post-match, Bennett started the press conference in his usual short tone, lamenting the errors from his team. <\/p>\n

He wasn\u2019t asked about the Kosi no try, instead the Trbojevic knock-on was the focus. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Wayne Bennett in his press conference.\u00a0NRL<\/p>\n

When he was first asked he said, \u201che didn\u2019t play it properly, simple as that\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe pay all this money for the Bunker and still don\u2019t get it right,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t playing well, so I\u2019m not going to use that as an excuse, but the bottom line is that\u2019s what they\u2019re there for. They\u2019ve got to go back to the play the ball when the try\u2019s scored and that was all in the one movement. If that\u2019s an acceptable play the ball then the game\u2019s going to change enormously very quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett then said he wasn\u2019t going to carry on about it because the game\u2019s finished but couldn\u2019t help himself when prodded more on the topic.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll come back to the point, we\u2019ve got a Bunker, it\u2019s supposed to be perfect because they expect us to be perfect. They have the opportunity to make a decision, to see it, and they still get it wrong,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a fan of no Bunker, I can tell you. I\u2019d rather the game play, get on with life and accept (decisions) like we always accept it, because they don\u2019t get it right all the time and they should because they\u2019ve got the benefit of hindsight and there\u2019s no time limit on their decision making.<\/p>\n

\u201cA month ago at the St George and Roosters game, the same thing happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bennett clarified he\u2019s not frustrated but angry that the Bunker keeps getting decisions wrong. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather have the try, and don\u2019t worry about whether the Bunker is involved again … we played for over 100 years without the Bunker,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The Bunker wasn\u2019t the only thing to cop it from Bennett, who said his side is going backwards at the wrong time of the season. The super coach put the performances on players with 150 games plus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe older players are better than that, they\u2019ve got to take some ownership on what their jobs are out there, they get well paid to do it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rabbitohs coach Wayne Bennett has called for the Bunker to be abolished after his side copped two tough…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":715035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-715034","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\/715034","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=715034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/715035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}