{"id":437068,"date":"2026-05-20T18:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/437068\/"},"modified":"2026-05-20T18:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T18:12:14","slug":"nrl-admits-cook-and-cotter-error-as-atkins-pays-the-price","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/437068\/","title":{"rendered":"NRL admits Cook and Cotter error as Atkins pays the price"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NRL<\/a> has fallen on its sword, admitting that Damien Cook<\/a> was robbed of a try on the weekend after it emerged that Penrith Panthers<\/a> winger Brian To’o<\/a> never actually had possession of the ball.<\/p>\n

The North Queensland Cowboys<\/a>, meanwhile, received their own apology, as the league acknowledged that Reuben Cotter<\/a>, who was sent to the bin for a professional foul, was incorrect.<\/p>\n

It was a call that nearly derailed their gutsy victory over the Sydney Roosters<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Damien Cook<\/a> had chased his own chip kick near halftime and appeared to get a boot to the ball as To’o put his fingertips to the ball, trying to clamp down on it.<\/p>\n

The dummy-half wheeled away in celebration of what he believed was a crucial four-pointer to make the game 12-6 at halftime against the Panthers.<\/p>\n

Bunker official Grant Atkins saw it differently, ruling To’o had possession and handed Penrith the penalty instead.<\/p>\n

Cook was interviewed by The Sydney Morning Herald and addressed his reaction to the initial decision of his try being overturned.<\/p>\n

“Is it consolation? I guess it’s irrelevant now,” Cook told SMH.<\/p>\n

“We were actually told it was the wrong call before we walked into the press conference the other night. I maintain things could have been different had we gone into half-time down 12-6. People were writing us off and expected us to be on the end of a big scoreline.<\/p>\n

“I thought it was a try. Every man and his dog have told me since they also thought it was a try. We’re just not getting those close calls. We were better, but as Dean said in the presser, it means nothing if we don’t improve again this weekend.”<\/p>\n

For Atkins, the man who oversaw the 2025 Grand Final, the fallout appears to have had consequences.<\/p>\n

He has been passed over for State of Origin<\/a> officiating duties next Wednesday, with Ashley Klein to take the whistle for the series opener.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL has fallen on its sword, admitting that Damien Cook was robbed of a try on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":417418,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-437068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=437068"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/437068\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/417418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=437068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=437068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=437068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}