{"id":898971,"date":"2026-09-20T14:12:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T14:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898971\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T14:12:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T14:12:19","slug":"trying-to-find-ways-to-take-it-off-us-coachs-scathing-take-on-calls-that-ended-warriors-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898971\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Trying to find ways to take it off us\u2019: Coach\u2019s scathing take on calls that ended Warriors\u2019 season"},"content":{"rendered":"

A frustrated Warriors coach Andrew Webster was left stunned after watching some of the calls his team was on the end of in the final 10 minutes of their semi-final loss to Newcastle<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The underdog Knights won a thriller 12-10 in front of a hostile Eden Park crowd of just under 50,000, who booed the officials off after the visitors got the rub of the green late in the match.<\/p>\n

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It all started in the 71st minute when Bradman Best dropped a Kalyn Ponga pass.<\/p>\n

The Knights called for a Captain\u2019s Challenge, arguing Ali Leiataua got a touch on the ball before it got to Best.<\/p>\n

The replays looked inconclusive, but the official in the Bunker found that the ball changed in its rotation due to slight contact with the Warriors centre\u2019s thumb.<\/p>\n

Bunker drama: 3 controversial calls! | 01:23<\/p>\n

Webster couldn\u2019t believe the on-field decision was overturned considering how many times the official in the Bunker looked at it.<\/p>\n

He figured, without enough conclusive evidence of a touch, the on-field call would remain, but it didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Had it done so, the Warriors would have started a new set inside the Knights half.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s frustrating. I thought they were trying to find ways to take it off us,\u201d Webster said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe rotation of the ball, like he said \u2018I can\u2019t find any evidence\u2019, and he says, \u2018oh hang on, I\u2019ll have one more look\u2019. And then has a look, \u2018oh yeah, there it is\u2019. He looked at it 20 times.\u201d<\/p>\n

Minutes later Knights winger Greg Marzhew dropped the ball 10m out from his own line after the Warriors swarmed in to put pressure on him. <\/p>\n

But referee Ashley Klein ruled the drop was due to a strip by Te Maire Martin and awarded the Knights a penalty.<\/p>\n

The Warriors challenged the call and lost despite it looking like a loose carry as Martin\u2019s arm didn\u2019t appear to rake at the ball.<\/p>\n

PLAYER RATINGS<\/p>\n

KNIGHTS: Unsung hero\u2019s clutch play; X-factor to worry Panthers<\/a><\/p>\n

WARRIORS: Absolute shambles exposes big Warriors issue<\/a><\/p>\n

Andrew Webster speaks to reporters after the loss.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n

The Bunker disagreed, saying he moved his fingers into a \u201cstripping motion\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s only trying to tackle him, he\u2019s not trying to strip the ball. And because he went in a backwards motion, I\u2019ve never heard that one, but I\u2019m sure it\u2019s part of the rules,\u201d Webster said.<\/p>\n

The Captain\u2019s Challenge loss would prove crucial moments later.<\/p>\n

With seconds left on the clock, Fletcher Sharpe fielded a Warriors bomb close to his line and with it, it looked to be game over.<\/p>\n

Replays showed Knights forward Tyson Frizell clearly blocking the Warriors kick chasers.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh no, we\u2019re going to have a penalty in front of the posts. That\u2019s a penalty every day of the week,\u201d caller Andrew Voss said.<\/p>\n

But referee Ashley Klein didn\u2019t see it and ruled play on, and the Knights played out the final seconds to secure an unlikely win.<\/p>\n

KNIGHTS: Holbrook says he \u2018didn\u2019t even notice\u2019 game-deciding missed call<\/a><\/p>\n

Holbrook dismisses bunker controversy | 08:25<\/p>\n

Despite all the controversial calls, Webster was trying not to blame the officials for his side\u2019s straight-sets elimination. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat would have drawn the game and gone to extra time. But at the end of the day, you make your own luck in this game and we had enough opportunities to win that game,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Skipper James Fisher-Harris echoed Webster\u2019s feelings about the calls and the way the Warriors played.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously a little bit frustrating, but it is what it is. As Webby said, you\u2019ve got to create your own luck,\u201d Fisher-Harris said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we had a lot of opportunities, we just didn\u2019t ice them. And we could have stopped a lot of momentum, but we didn\u2019t.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Warriors had 63 per cent of the territory, but like last week against the Dolphins, couldn\u2019t take advantage of it at the ends of their sets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A frustrated Warriors coach Andrew Webster was left stunned after watching some of the calls his team was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898972,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,85,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-898971","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-sports","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898971","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=898971"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898971\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898971"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898971"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898971"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}