{"id":872782,"date":"2026-08-29T15:04:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-29T15:04:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/872782\/"},"modified":"2026-08-29T15:04:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-29T15:04:29","slug":"nrl-2026-benji-marshall-slams-refereeing-in-wests-tigers-loss-to-north-queensland-cowboys-video-reaction-apisai-koroisau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/872782\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL 2026: Benji Marshall slams refereeing in Wests Tigers loss to North Queensland Cowboys, video, reaction, Apisai Koroisau"},"content":{"rendered":"

Benji Marshall has teed off at the \u201coutrageous\u201d standard of the refereeing in the Tigers\u2019 loss to the Cowboys<\/a> on Saturday, declaring he will be demanding a \u2018please explain\u2019 from the NRL.<\/p>\n

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The Tigers put up a big fight against North Queensland despite having nothing to play for, with coach Marshall opening his press conference by telling reporters he was \u201creally proud\u201d of his playing group.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI asked them to fight for everything, even though we\u2019ve got nothing to play for in terms of the table and the semis. I thought they did a great job of that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It explains why Marshall was so fired up as he took aim at the officiating, with the Tigers coach pointing out a number of controversial decisions he wants clarification on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually feel very sorry for them because the standard and the level of some of the refereeing decisions today was honestly outrageous,\u201d Marshall said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we copped the raw end of the stick all night.\u201d<\/p>\n

To start with, Marshall questioned the decision to take a try away from Jarome Luai after Apisai Koroisau was ruled to have swatted at the arm of Thomas Mikaele in the lead-up. <\/p>\n

Mikaele looked to be running out of dummy-half instead of shaping to pass, which Marshall believed gave his skipper every right to play at the Cowboys forward\u2019s arm and force the mistake.<\/p>\n

\u201cJust the inconsistencies around Api gets penalised when Jarome runs away and scores for playing at Tom Mikaele arm or stripping the ball. What\u2019s he supposed to do?\u201d Marshall said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s going to go and score if he doesn\u2019t. We go down the other end, it\u2019s an eight-point turnaround,\u201d he added, referencing the penalty goal North Queensland kicked shortly after.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the second half, there\u2019s so many things at the end of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Luai try ruled out by bunker call | 00:46<\/p>\n

The first contentious incident came in the 58th minute when a Scott Drinkwater kick bounced off the posts into the path of Jaxon Purdue for a try, with Marshall arguing halfback Jock Madden was taken out in the fight for the ball.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey go and we contest the ball, we get penalised for contesting,\u201d he said, referring to an obstruction call on Jeral Skelton a few minutes before the Purdue try.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey go down, take Jock Madden out, same thing, we get no penalty and they score. That\u2019s just a couple of things that actually happened out there, and I just feel sorry for the players because we\u2019re fighting so hard to try and get the result. <\/p>\n

\u201cTake nothing away from the Cowboys, they earned their victory and got it, but I feel like I need to stand up for my players because the way they\u2019re fighting, it\u2019s just not right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marshall then turned his attention towards a potential try to Terrell May which was taken off the board after Fonua Pole was ruled to have obstructed Heilum Luki.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe runs a lead inside the four man on the guy inside Heilum Luki, who makes a defensive decision to come in, and Terrell goes outside him and the obstruction\u2019s for the guy inside. Anyone who knows footy knows that\u2019s a try and then it\u2019s 20-16 with however long to go and we\u2019re fighting back in it,\u201d Marshall said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just felt like that all night. I had my rant, I just don\u2019t think it\u2019s right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cows ‘not good enough’ ahead of finals | 04:54<\/p>\n

Koroisau was pictured having a number of tense conversations with referee Grant Atkins, who at one point seemed to warn the Tigers skipper over his line of questioning.<\/p>\n

\u201c50-50 calls need to go one way or the other. I hope you\u2019re not suggesting it\u2019s going one way unfairly,\u201d Atkins said.<\/p>\n

Marshall backed his captain\u2019s approach on the field, telling reporters Koroisau \u201cdid a great job in asking the questions that needed to be asked tonight\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom our point of view, when you\u2019re at this part of the table that\u2019s probably what happens but (that) doesn\u2019t make it right,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be sending in a few questions and asking for a please explain, but that\u2019s irrelevant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I am proud of is that the guys, no matter what, kept fighting for the whole night and showed spirit given there\u2019s not actually anything to play for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Tigers close out their season next week against the first-placed Panthers on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Benji Marshall has teed off at the \u201coutrageous\u201d standard of the refereeing in the Tigers\u2019 loss to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":872783,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-872782","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\/872782","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=872782"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/872782\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/872783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=872782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=872782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=872782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}