The NRL has confirmed the St George Illawarra Dragons should have been awarded a potentially result-altering try during Sunday's loss to the Parramatta Eels.
With just over 25 minutes remaining in the match, and the Dragons leading the Eels away from home 20 points to 10, Liddle made a clean line break and looked to be headed for the try-line.
Only a desperate tackle from Parramatta fullback Clint Gutherson could save the try, although the ball bounced out of the tackle and Talatau Amone ran away to score.
On review from the bunker, video official Chris Butler found there was no stripping motion from Gutherson, and instead, Liddle had dropped the ball, leading to a knock-on.
That was a version of events the NRL's head of football Graham Annesley disagreed with during his weekly briefing at NRL HQ on Monday.
"It's a one-on-one tackle. The ball comes out, it's picked up by another Dragons player [Talatau Amone] and the try is claimed. This goes for review, and it was deemed on review to be a loose carry and therefore a knock on, rather than the ball being knocked out Clint Gutherson, in which case, it would have been play on," Annesley said.
"The first thing is, Gutherson goes in trying to make a tackle. There is no question about that.
"In this particular angle, Liddle is free, Clint comes across the top, throws his hand on top of the ball. At this point, his hand is on top of the ball and there is only two outcomes here. Either he [Liddle] is about to break free from this tackle and score, or Clint has the opportunity to try and dispossess him.
"I think it's at this point that you can see the fingers curl up on the top of the ball and there is a raking motion that dislodges the ball. If it was just in the process of making a tackle, there would be a case for a loose carry, but the action of Clint here means that the tackle count should have restarted, and that should have been a try in our view.
"There are plenty of people who will argue and say that the responsibility is on the ball carrier to not lose the ball in that situation because someone has their hand on the ball, but the fact is that while stripping in that situation is not a penalty because it's a one-on-one tackle, it's just a matter of whether the bunker made the right ruling in calling it a loose carry."
Another moment of controversy in the game during the first half saw Zac Lomax placed on report for an ugly-looking tackle on Andrew Davey.
Ruled by referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski as a head slam on field in placing the Dragons' centre on report, Lomax didn't feature on Monday morning's charge sheet from the match review committee.
Annesley however disagreed with that as well, saying the tackle didn't meet the game's rules for a head slam, with Ben Hunt's involvement in the tackle also playing a mitigating role, despite the force ball carrier Andrew Davey hit the ground with.
"There were claims that this was a head slam, and on first examination, it doesn't look good," Annesley said on Lomax's tackle.
"Under the laws of the game, and under the judiciary code, to be a head slam, there has to be a hand [of the defender] across the head or neck [of the attacker].
"In this case, you'll see quite clearly that Lomax has hold of the ball carrier's arm and it comes down across his chest. The other important factor here is that Ben Hunt has hold of his legs, and lifts his legs to try and get him to ground at the same time as Lomax has his weight on the top, and that in itself is not an illegal action. With Lomax over the top, the ball carrier hits the ground very hard.
"It's not quite what it looked like when it first took place. There are two players involved and their actions individually are not offences. It does have a severe outcome in terms of the impact with the ground, but we do have incidents in our game that take place that are not as a result of foul play that can be quite serious in terms of impact."
The Dragons ultimately came up short 26 points to 20 in the game. While the result did little for the out-of-finals-contention Dragons either way, the win likely keeps a flame flickering for the Eels are they push to feature as part of the top eight in September action.
