Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\nThe scoreline would have been closer had Stephen Crichton not missed two conversions, but the Storm were deserving winners of a game which threatened to boil over at stages. <\/p>\n
Midway through the second half, Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Burton juggled a pass into Melbourne\u2019s Nick Meaney as he got tackled, and referee Adam Gee ruled it a knock-on.<\/p>\n
Storm winger Grant Anderson then taunted Burton by ruffling his headgear, which neither the Bulldogs No. 6 nor his teammate Kikau took kindly too. <\/p>\n
A melee ensured, as Kikau came in and grabbed Anderson, while Burton made his feelings known to Meaney and tossed the ball at him, thinking it was the Storm centre who had rubbed his head.<\/p>\n
Greg Alexander said on Fox League: \u201cJust a little push and shove. Kikau didn\u2019t like Grant Anderson\u2019s treatment of Burton.\u201d <\/p>\n
Remarkably, referee Gee called a penalty against the Storm because of Anderson taunting Burton by touching his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happens is the touch on the back of the head instigates it,\u201d Gee told Anderson. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what that reaction is. It\u2019s going against you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dan Ginnane said in commentary: \u201cWow. What would have been a knock-on against Canterbury becomes a penalty to the Dogs.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes Matt Burton think Meaney was the head tapper?\u201d<\/p>\n
Alexander added: \u201cGrant Anderson just oversteps the mark.\u201d<\/p>\n
Footy fans couldn\u2019t believe Gee reversed the penalty over a head rub.<\/p>\n
NRL reporter Phil Rothfield wrote on X: \u201cI never in my life seen a player penalised for touching a rival\u2019s head.\u201d<\/p>\n
One fan said: \u201cPenalty for rubbing a head in NRL is crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
A second said: \u201cMight be one of the worst penalties ever. Penalising a player for geeing up after a knock on? Games gone.\u201d<\/p>\n
A third said: \u201cThat\u2019s the most pathetic penalty I reckon I\u2019ve witnessed in rugby league. If Kikau didn\u2019t react nobody would have cared.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another commented: \u201cThat is disgraceful by the ref. On what earth is patting an opposition player\u2019s head a penalty? It happens all the time! You\u2019re rewarding the Dogs player for overreacting!!\u201d<\/p>\n
Down to 12 men for 10 minutes of the second half when captain Harry Grant was sin binned for a shoulder charge, the Storm dug deep defensively to hold off a fast finishing Canterbury.<\/p>\n
It moves the Storm two games clear of the third-placed Bulldogs, who have an inferior points difference and will need a miracle to steal second on the ladder.<\/p>\n
The Storm\u2019s rugged defence was a highlight all night as Bulldogs five-eighth Matt Burton tested them time and again with his stellar field kicking, but the key moment came in a spectacular chase down tackle from Storm winger Xavier Coates to deny Harry Hayes a metre from the line late in the second half.<\/p>\n
Coates, who is in remarkable form, scored what would be the game\u2019s winning try, benefiting from a stellar build up that was one of the team tries of the season.<\/p>\n
With Grant in the sin bin, Storm created some breathing space on the back of a 30 metre dash and chip from Grant Anderson, which connected with Nick Meaney, who\u2019s perfect four-from-four from the goal kicking tee was crucial.<\/p>\n
On the next play, Storm young gun Jonah Pezet produced a perfectly weighted cross field kick to find Coates unattended, who posted his 12th try in his past nine home games.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs huffed and puffed with star centre Stephen Crichton coming so close to a late try, but could just never take the lead as Storm held on with one of their best defensive performances of the season.<\/p>\n
There was a worrying moment when Burton hyperextended his already strapped left knee and stayed down for 30 seconds, but got up and into the defensive line much to the relief of Dogs fans.<\/p>\n
Burton\u2019s woes continued when he was again left on the deck, this time from a fierce tackle with his ribs wide open from Storm enforcer Tui Kamikamica, which winded him.<\/p>\n
But he is one of the toughest Bulldogs there is and he tried his utmost to get his side over the line under duress.<\/p>\n
The spectacular chase down tackle from Coates to deny Hayes just centimetres from the line was the game\u2019s defining moment.<\/p>\n
With NewsWire<\/p>\n
Originally published as \u2018Wow\u2019: Penalty for \u2018head rub\u2019 in Storm-Bulldogs blasted by NRL fans<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Melbourne Storm have taken care of business to lock in yet another top four finish after defeating…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87714,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[20426,64,63,56809,4567,12732,65437,65436,65438,3490,763,65427,4608,11102,65431,65434,65432,64029,65439,4555,37970,4466,761,762,4609,158,8015,65435,159,23858,8088,49334,65430,85,65429,4546,65433,65428,9020],"class_list":["post-87713","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-adam-gee","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-breathing-space","tag-cameron-munster","tag-dan-ginnane","tag-defensive-performances","tag-defining-moment","tag-deserving-winners","tag-footy-fans","tag-fox-league","tag-goal-kicking-tee","tag-grant-anderson","tag-greg-alexander","tag-head-instigates","tag-head-rub","tag-head-tapper","tag-home-games","tag-inferior-points-difference","tag-jacob-kiraz","tag-matthew-sullivan","tag-melbourne-storm","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nick-meaney","tag-nrl","tag-opposition-player","tag-pathetic-penalty","tag-rugby-league","tag-shoulder-charge","tag-sin-bin","tag-snoop-dogg","tag-spectacular-chase","tag-sports","tag-stellar-field-kicking","tag-stephen-crichton","tag-storm-winger","tag-team-tries","tag-young-gun"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87713","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=87713"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87713\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}