North Queensland Cowboys head coach Todd Payten has exploded at the NRL over their lack of accountability in refereeing after Saturday evening's golden point draw against the Penrith Panthers.
A number of calls Payten believed to be wrong irked the head coach, suggesting he was confused over what a high tackle is, and adding that if players made as many mistakes in his team, they would be dropped.
"Yes I do," Payten said during his post-match press conference when asked if he wanted to see the referees make calls in golden point.
"That's what they are paid to do. Make the right call at the right time.
"Murray Taulagi got a penalty where a bloke fell into his chest, and then Viliami Vailea, less than five minutes later, got his head taken off right in front of the touch judge. There was no call there and that was wrong.
"There was also a flop on the 40-metre line. Any later and it would have been made tomorrow.
"It's so frustrating. We want consistency and we aren't getting it. I'm confused what's a high shot and what's not. I'm sure everyone else is. I'm pretty close to action as well, so I'll talk to the NRL during the week and go through the right channels, but it's just white noise.
"No one is held accountable for it. If it's my player making error after error, or a couple of howlers, then there is a fair chance he isn't in the team."
The Cowboys, who found themselves down by 12 points twice in the game, came back to force golden point, but couldn't get over the line in the game despite having four shots at field goal.
Captain Tom Dearden was midway through explaining his side were working hard on their starts to not end up behind when Payten interruped to take aim at a try which came off a forward pass.
"One of the tries was off a forward pass. So I tell you how to fix that. Make the fu... Make the right call. There was a try off a kick, our kick defence can be better, but those things at the start of the time can really hurt the spirit of the team. To be fair, they stayed calm and connected and fought to get back into it," Payten interrupted.
"But again, that's right in front of the touch judge. It was half a metre, a metre forward. There was one here against the Titans that was three metres forward. They have such a huge impact in the game. Get it right."
Payten and Dearden both suggested the Cowboys should have walked away from the game with two points rather than one, and Dearden also said NRL refereeing was 'frustrating'.
"It's frustrating. It's frustrating for the coaches, fans and players as well. I agree with the coach on that. You want consistency, and you want the right call at the right time," Dearden said.
The loss leaves the Cowboys having not won in their last two starts.
After a slow start to the season, North Queensland turned things around with four straight wins, and now sit with a four wins, four losses and one draw record to be on 11 points from nine games, sitting fifth on the table ahead of Sunday's games.
