{"id":808582,"date":"2026-07-18T17:01:49","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T17:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/808582\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T17:01:49","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T17:01:49","slug":"nrl-news-2026-damien-cooks-stinging-suggestion-after-dragons-lose-to-warriors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/808582\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL news 2026 | Damien Cook\u2019s stinging suggestion after Dragons lose to Warriors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dragons<\/a> veteran Damien Cook<\/a> has teed off over the officiating in his side\u2019s 20-12 loss to the Warriors<\/a> on Saturday night, saying it\u2019s \u201cunfair\u201d and suggesting they fight an uphill battle against referees because they are a struggling team.<\/p>\n

With 10 minutes left on the clock in the Auckland clash, Valentine Holmes was pinged for an escort infringement on Taine Tuaupiki.<\/p>\n

\"Taine<\/p>\n

Taine Tuaupiki is knocked over by Valentine Holmes.\u00a0Fox League<\/p>\n

Tuaupiki was looking to chase his kick when he ran into the back of the Dragons star, who seemingly only had eyes for the ball, not his opponent. <\/p>\n

A replay of the incident seemed to clear Holmes of any wrongdoing, though the Bunker had a different view and ruled a penalty for an escort. <\/p>\n

The penalty gifted the Warriors a chance to claim a one converted try lead in the dying minutes of the game, which had been a thrilling end-to-end battle. <\/p>\n

Dallin Watene-Zelezniak had scored the final try of the match earlier in the second half, while the Dragons were denied the opportunity to lead by two points. <\/p>\n

Setu Tu looked to have got St George Illawarra in front with 20 minutes left, but the Dragons gun was denied by the Bunker as it was deemed he had been tackled in the build-up.<\/p>\n

Another penalty in the final minutes of the match sealed the fate of the visitors, with an offside ruling gifting the Warriors a moment to celebrate a 20-12 win. <\/p>\n

Adam Pompey was first to strike on Saturday, though his try-scoring efforts did not come without some questioning from the Dragons. <\/p>\n

The Warriors centre proved too strong for a handful of Dragons defenders as he powered towards the tryline, but he appeared to ground the ball short. The on-field decision of no try was sent up to the Bunker, who had enough evidence to overturn that ruling as he had not ground the ball before sliding into the in-goal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not getting rewarded for the effort we\u2019re putting in,\u201d Cook said in the Dragons\u2019 post-game press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Warriors got a lot of stuff out there, we\u2019re putting a lot of effort in, we\u2019re fighting for play-the-balls, but we\u2019re not getting the same six agains.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe come out at half-time, they throw a forward pass, and we\u2019re chasing points straight away when we were in control of that game.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just not right. I feel sorry for the fans that have to watch that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut it\u2019s happened too many times to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dragons are sitting last on the ladder with only two wins from 17 games.<\/p>\n

A season that began with Shane Flanagan getting sacked in April will likely end with a wooden spoon. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know if it\u2019s because we\u2019re sitting down at the bottom and it\u2019s an easy one to throw off because the Warriors should win today,\u201d Cook added.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s unfair, and we deserve better moving forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dragons interim coach Dean Young also fired up in the press conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a hard one,\u201d Young said of the Setu no-try call.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe referee said he wasn\u2019t held, so he gets up and scores a try, and then the Bunker goes against him.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut if he called held, we\u2019ll probably score on the next play because there are no Warriors ready to defend us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was a big turning point in the game, and it hurts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Panthers legend Greg Alexander was dumbfounded by the Holmes call.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat? He barely had time to turn around. He had only taken two steps,\u201d Alexander said on Fox League.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a bad call. That is not right. Please, you can\u2019t [rule that].<\/p>\n

\u201cThe kick has landed at least three or four metres from where he was. It happened within a split second. He wasn\u2019t looking.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dragons veteran Damien Cook has teed off over the officiating in his side\u2019s 20-12 loss to the Warriors…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":808583,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-808582","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\/808582","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=808582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/808582\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/808583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=808582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=808582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=808582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}