NZ Warriors coach Stephen Kearney admits his side were on the wrong end of some questionable calls, but refuses to blame the referee for their 40-12 loss to South Sydney Rabbitohs on Friday night.
The Warriors never appeared to get the rub of the green, outscored seven tries to two in their fourth loss of the season.
One decision that left Keaney fuming came late in the first half, when David Fusitu'a was forced from the field for a head injury assessment (HIA), after being hit in the head by a swinging Latrell Mitchell arm in the act of scoring.
The incident went unpunished, although there was a strong case for a penalty try or at least a sin-bin, which would have given the Warriors a two-man advantage, with Souths playmaker Cody Walker off the field.
Playing his first match since the NRL's return from the coronavirus shutdown, the winger failed his head test and didn't return to the field. Kearney says Fusitu'a was "not in a good way" and felt the decision was one of many that didn't go the Warriors' way.
Souths ended up taking a 24-6 lead into the break and the Warriors never recovered.
"It's all there to see," Kearney says. "I didn't think you could hit the head of a player - the back of the head too.
"I don't want to sound like I'm blaming the officiating, because that was one minor issue of a number of issues tonight.
"The last half hour, there wasn't a 'six-again' blown... just the consistency around it is frustrating.
"When you're on the end of a belting, it's a bit hard to point fingers, but I thought we just could not get anything, nothing.
"We created some opportunities for ourselves. Yep, we didn't execute well when we needed to, but jeez..."
Kearney feels the Warriors were their own worst enemies at times, labelling his team "soft".
"We created enough opportunities, we got over the try-line four times tonight and lost the ball - one got batted away.
"We just didn't have any resilience to keep them out. They're a good footy team and we didn't show enough toughness to mount a challenge."
Along with the Fusitu'a injury, the Warriors also lost prop Lachlan Burr, who has recently been sidelined with concussion symptoms, to another failed HIA, while young forward Eliesa Katoa played through an ankle injury.
Kearney says his squad health is stretched.
"Including Po [Faamausili] who's our loan player, bare minimum," he says. "We're lucky to get 13 on 13 when we're doing our opposed sessions, but again, looking around the competition, I think that's a big part of the competition at the moment.
"There are a number of injuries popping up, but that wasn't the issue tonight.
"We lost two to HIA for the game, our young fella come off, who's been playing 80 minutes for us, but that doesn't make you miss 43 tackles."
Kearney adds that while some players won't admit it, they are finding it tough without their families.
He hopes arrangements can be made for family members without Australian passports to fly over and join the group soon.
"We've got guys in the group who've got families with young kids. We're really hopeful they're coming out of a very clean bubble in New Zealand and hopefully allowed to join our bubble, which is very clean also - we've been in lockdown in Terrigal.
"Hopefully, the Federal Government or powers that be give the opportunity for families with young kids to be able to join us. We're very hopeful that may happen in the near future - it’s a challenge."
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