Dubbo Kangaroos coach Dean Matthews has slammed the standard of refereeing in the central west in the wake of his side’s 38-19 win over cross-town rivals Dubbo Rhinos at Caltex Park on Saturday.
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The Roos bagged maximum points in the win to maintain second spot on the Blowes Clothing Cup ladder, but that didn’t stop Matthews from lamenting the fact his side was once again on the wrong end of the penalty count.
In a game where centre Billy Sing continued his transition to the sport with another four tries, the Roos gave away multiple penalties for offside and infringing in the ruck.
“We had blokes get hit high and nothing gets done about it, but then we keep getting pinged for offside. I just don’t understand it,” Matthews said.
“Obviously we have to improve our discipline, we keep getting drilled in penalty counts. But the standard needs to lift because there was some pretty obvious stuff that got missed there today.
“I think that’s the 17th straight time we’ve beaten Rhinos so we’ll take the win, we’ll take the five points and we’ll move on to next week. But it still wasn’t good enough.”
Down 33-0 at half-time and 38-0 in the opening stages of the second stanza, the Rhinos rallied and put on the last three tries of the match.
Obviously we have to improve our discipline, we keep getting drilled in penalty counts. But the standard needs to lift because there was some pretty obvious stuff that got missed there today.
- Dean Matthews
It was that kind of fight that has coach Dave Stuart encouraged as they look for a strong last three weeks of the 2017 season.
“We made too many simple errors in the first half and I told the boys to cut that out and stop trying to throw miracle passes,” he said.
“Obviously given the situation we had a lot of new blokes playing for us, and being basically a new side we didn’t have the cohesion within the playing group to try and pull that stuff off.
“When we cut that stuff out, we started to get field position and put the Roos under pressure and we capitalised.
“But credit to the Roos, they had put themselves in a position to win the match well before that happened.
“Compared to where we were last week with the forfeits, and given where the Roos are on the competition ladder, I’m pretty happy with that.
The win not only gave the Roos cross-town bragging rights, it also handed them the Mark Melville Cup, a prestigious piece of silverware that goes on the line every time the local rivals go head-to-head.
DUBBO KANGAROOS 38 (Billy Sing 4, Hamish Gordon, Jock Brownhill tries; Gordon 4 convs) def DUBBO RHINOS 19 (Eroni Turaga, Jordan Davis, Daniel Ah-see tries; Kane Rich, Turaga convs)