Adamant Burraston refuses to back down on belief NRL picking on club
BY BRETT KEEBLE
NEWCASTLE remain offside with the game's officials after Knights CEO Steve Burraston and NRL referees coach Robert Finch traded more barbs yesterday.
The NRL fined Burraston $5000 on Monday, believing comments he made in The Herald that day had questioned the integrity and impartiality of referees.
Burraston said: "I think referees have a pre-conceived idea that we're an undisciplined club and we give a lot of penalties away, and they look for every minor thing that they can possibly penalise us on."
Refusing to back away from the controversy, Burraston said yesterday Finch's comments in several newspaper articles since only supported his belief that the Knights were not getting a fair go.
Burraston said that instead of explaining particular rulings, Finch had pointed to the fact that the Knights (130) had conceded more penalties than any other team in the NRL and Newcastle second-rower Chris Houston (19) was the NRL's most penalised player.
"I've got to be very careful what I say because I don't want to risk another fine and put myself into breach again," Burraston said last night.
"But Robert Finch's response over the last two days is exactly what I'm talking about, so I'll let him do the talking for me.
"He didn't talk about the referee or the game, he talked about the Newcastle team having the problem and that we need to have a look at ourselves, and he also spoke about Chris Houston as having a problem the previous week with the referee at Penrith."
Asked if he or the referees had a problem with Newcastle, Finch said: "Absolutely not."
"That's absolute rubbish," said Finch, who hails from Maitland and is a former Knights lower-grade coach. "The only reason I trotted that out is because he [Burraston] trotted his out, so I was only responding to that. He can think what he likes."
Finch is in the process of responding to several rulings Knights coach Brian Smith wants clarified from Newcastle's 16-13 loss to Cronulla last Saturday.
The Knights lost the penalty count 11-6 it was 6-2 in the second half and Smith said they did not receive a penalty from referee Tony Archer in the final 35 minutes of the game. The main concern was a penalty against Chris Bailey on opposite number Brett Seymour in the 58th minute, from which Luke Covell kicked the Sharks to a 14-13 lead.
Smith believed Seymour was at fault for knocking Bailey to the ground as he rose to play the ball. Finch acknowledged Seymour did grab Bailey's legs and dragged him down but said Bailey made the first indiscretion.
"That's true. But prior to that, the tackle is made, Bailey makes the tackle, spins on the tackle, goes to a bear-hug and then puts his hand on the ball," Finch said.
Asked if Archer made the right decision, Finch said: "Exactly right."
"That player [Seymour] who created momentum deserved a quick play-the-ball," he said. "He didn't deserve to get tackled, then spun on, then bear-hugged, then hand on the football. That's my answer to that one."
Apart from being the NRL's most penalised team, the Knights (92) have received less penalties than any other team this season, and that frustrated Smith more than anything.
"We sought clarification on a whole heap of things about our performance earlier on in the year. We've addressed those on a regular basis, we've taken steps in terms of selection, we've coached our players up and we recognise that we still need to do more," Smith said.
"We were disappointed that four of the penalties that we conceded on the weekend were down to the ill-discipline of our players.
"But a number of others we believe were just incorrect rulings, in some cases, or at worst 50-50 calls, and you expect to get some of those in any game of footy.
"As I understand, still nobody in the rugby league world has come to me to say how we can actually get more penalties."
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