MELBOURNE Storm coach Craig Bellamy said yesterday momentum-swinging refereeing decisions that went against his team during Sunday night's 15-8 National Rugby League grand final loss against Brisbane had left a sour taste.
Bellamy, who had been restrained when asked after the loss about the contentious decisions, let loose yesterday.
He said the 10th-minute penalty against Billy Slater for stripping the ball from Brisbane hooker Shaun Berrigan and referee Paul Simpkins' failure to pull Berrigan up for an obstruction after 60 minutes — which led to another crucial two points against his side — had left a "sour taste" in his mouth.
"The one that irked me more than anything was Berrigan running around his own player," Bellamy said. "That should have been a penalty to us. (But) because the referee's waiting for him to score, and send it up to the video ref … we get a penalty against us in front of the posts (because of Slater's high tackle on Berrigan), and all of a sudden, it's 10-8, then they score off the next set as well.
"It's a huge call. We needed the referee to make a decision there, and it was quite obvious the decision he had to make. You just can't run behind your own player like that."
Bellamy said he did not want to take the gloss from the Broncos' win because they were the better side on Sunday night. But several contentious decisions, made by Simpkins and the video referees Bill Harrigan and Chris Ward, changed the shape of the game.
"I wouldn't say it cost us the match but I'll say that a couple of those decisions were really momentum-swinging, and you just don't know what could have happened and that's a little bit hard to accept," Bellamy said. "But at the end of the day, they won well and they played well, so you just have to get on with life."
Bellamy was angry about the strip ruling, but also the fact that Simpkins made the decision immediately, even though the Storm had made a fast break out of its territory through Slater and Matt Geyer. "Because it's a hundred metres away, and he doesn't think we're going to score, he makes a decision on the spot. He does it at one end of the field, they go up the other end for the shepherd and he doesn't want to make that decision. There's a lack of consistency straight away.
"I didn't want to go on about this (on Sunday night) because the Broncos played well and deserved to win. We weren't at our best.
"But when you get a few decisions that really swing the momentum … it just leaves a bit of a sour taste."
Meanwhile, Storm medical staff yesterday examined the rib injury that Cameron Smith sustained in Sunday's grand final. They were confident that it was only bruising and not a fracture.
The injury and a corked leg limited his crucial influence for the Storm in the second half, but he was confident it would not cost him his first Australian jersey after he, Greg Inglis and Matt King were named yesterday in the Kangaroos squad for the Tri-Nations series.
"The ribs are a bit sore still, I'll get the doctors at the club to look at it," Smith said after returning to Melbourne yesterday.
"I've had broken ribs before and it doesn't feel as bad as that did. I'm not too sure what I did, but hopefully it's not too bad."
Smith spent the rest of the afternoon drowning his sorrows with his teammates and some of the Storm faithful at the club's Princes Park training base.
With AAP
