Toovey ‘dumbfounded’ at ref’s decisions

Manly coach Geoff Toovey was angered at a number of refereeing decisions during Friday’s 32-30 golden point loss to Canterbury.

The Bulldogs were awarded a controversial 58th minute try, despite scorer Josh Reynolds appearing to ground the ball short of the line.

After Jamie Lyon‘s sideline conversion had sent the match into golden point, referee Shayne Hayne penalised Sea Eagles backrower Glenn Stewart for lifting Reynolds in the tackle.

Backchat from five-eighth Kieran Foran saw Hayne march the Sea Eagles downfield, allowing Trent Hodkinson to kick the winning points.

“It’s obvious from everyone else apart from the blokes who make the decisions,” Toovey told Manly’s official website.

“I’m a bit dumbfounded but again, we had to be better.”

The Sea Eagles were forced to cope with the loss of experienced campaigner Anthony Watmough but still managed to fight their way back from 30-12 down to force the game into extra time.

“The last penalty was pretty obvious as well, but that’s only my opinion,” Toovey said.

“All we can do is what we’ve got control of and that’s fix ourselves. Someone else can fix the other things.

“We have to be better so that we can overcome that, overcome those obstacles, because those decisions are going against us. It’s happening quite regularly so we need to be better. All we can do is control our own fate.”