Frizell kept his eyes on the ball and lifted his hands as if attempting a catch, but crossed in front of Sharpe and was over a metre away from where the ball was caught.
As a result, Klein and the officiating team were targeted by those in the crowd of more than 48,000, after the final whistle.
Webster said the officiating was frustrating, starting with the Leiataua knock-on.
“I thought they were trying to find ways to take it off us,” he explained.
“He said, ‘I can’t find any evidence’ and he says, ‘oh hang on, I’ll have one more look”, and then there’s a look, “oh yeah there it is”.
“[He] looked at it 20 times.”
Webster questioned the call on Martin’s alleged strip.
“Te Maire’s only trying to tackle him; he’s not trying to strip the ball. And because he went in a backwards motion, I’ve never heard that one, but I’m sure it’s part of the rules.”
Martin was adamant he was not trying to strip the ball.
“No, I didn’t plan on that,” he said post-match.
“I got bumped off. I don’t know how you get bumped off and try and strip it at the same time. But yeah, we still had opportunities to win the game.
“I went to go tackle him, got bumped off, and the ball popped out. So to be honest, there was no intention on stripping it. But I actually got up and said a few words to him because I thought he dropped it.
“Obviously at that time, you’re kind of at that level where you know not to strip there; it’s not really what you need and gives them an easy leg out.”
Webster also took exception to the non-escort call on Frizell. If the penalty was awarded, it would have allowed the Warriors a penalty kick to tie the game.
Tyson Frizell looked to have blocked Leka Halasima from challenging for the high ball. Photo / Sky Sport
“Two points would have drawn the game. He’s going across pretending to try and catch the ball, which they told us you can’t do.
“But I’ll be clear, that would have drawn the game and gone to golden point, or we could have scored off the other one, who knows? But at the end of the day you make your own luck in this game, and we had enough opportunities to win that game.”
Knights coach Justin Holbrook was clearly irritated at being asked about the calls in the press conference.
“I thought they were all right. I’m not here to comment on the result. Anyway, we were fantastic today. The Warriors have had a great year; they were enormous.
“It was not much in the game, but I want to thank our players. We played with 100-odd fans here out of 50,000, and we knew how many fans were watching back home, so I’m really happy with the win.”
When asked about the escort, Holbrook said: “I didn’t notice that, thanks.”
When pressed on Martin’s strip, the coach said: “I thought he stripped it with his hand and ripped it.”
Nathan Limm has been a journalist with Newstalk ZB and the NZ Herald since 2020. He covered the Netball World Cup in Cape Town in 2023, hosts The Big League Podcast and commentates rugby and netball for Gold Sport.