Eels rage as officials have hand in defeat
By Steve Mascord
July 25, 2004
The Sun-Herald
Video referee Chris Ward defended his decision to award Melbourne halfback Matt Orford a matchwinning try 20 seconds from full-time last night - a call Eels coach Brian Smith labelled "disgusting".
Fighting to stay in the finals race, the Eels fought back to level the scores 16-16 with just two minutes left in an incident-packed contest.
With golden-point time appearing a certainty, the Storm went the length of the field. Orford launched himself at the line despite the attention of Eels Daniel Wagon, Wade McKinnon and Nathan Hindmarsh.
The Sydney Origin rep reached over his head to touch down, with Smith claiming afterwards that Ward was the only person in the stadium who could not see McKinnon's hand between the ball and the grass.
"I viewed it from both sides," Ward told The Sun-Herald.
"The ball appeared to be on the ground from the far side but after viewing it on two occasions [I ruled] the benefit of the doubt - that the ball did hit the ground."
Smith's comments were among the most vociferous by a coach at a post-match media conference this season. "Disgusting is the word," he said. "I think all the Melbourne players had lined up for a play-the-ball, didn't you?
"I think they knew what had happened. All of our players knew what had happened.
"Certainly the bloke who made the tackle had his arm under the ball and held him up.
"It appeared as if the video referee was the only one who didn't realise what had happened.
"To come here playing under pressure to stay in the race for the finals, and to lose the way we did, on the back of decisions not made by players from either team, is just not good enough.
"If we keep playing like we did tonight and we're on the end of some crap calls, it will make it very difficult [to make the finals]."
Parramatta also questioned whether Melbourne's Matt King got the ball down inside the corner post for his 56th-minute try, and centre Dean Widders claimed he had been taken out without the ball just short of scoring seven minutes later
"[The Orford decision] was one of many tonight - some made in the box, some made on the field - that were the difference in the winning and losing of the game," Smith said.
"It wasn't decided by the players tonight . . . it's there for everyone to see. You'd just like to think the appropriate action will be taken." Orford admitted he wasn't totally sure if he had scored a fair try.
"I thought I got it down," he said. "Whether he [McKinnon] had his arm underneath it as well, who knows? There were a fair few bodies there."
The controversial finale wasn't the only thing about the game what was out of the ordinary.
Parramatta second-rower Hindmarsh turned the airwaves blue when he referred to an opponent - presumably Billy Slater - as "that f------ little c---" when being cautioned by referee Paul Simpkins in the 31st minute.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy said: "I thought their try in the second half under the posts probably came from a forward pass . . . what goes around comes around.
"That last one, from the angles that they had, they probably had to rule a try, to be quite honest."
