Newcastle coach Nathan Brown has pleaded for a fair go from the NRL's referees after the Knights were denied two crucial tries in Friday's loss to Canterbury.
Brown stopped short of pointing the finger at the officials after his side's 22-12 loss to the Dogs at McDonald Jones Stadium for fear of being slugged with a hefty fine.
Nonetheless he queried why Newcastle were seemingly always on the wrong end of contentious calls and even went as far as theorising it is because his side have a reputation as the competition's whipping boys.
Twice in the second half against the Dogs they were denied tries by the bunker, causing Brown to lose patience.
"Some of the 50-50s we're not getting are our own fault, some of the 50-50s we're not getting are someone else's fault," Brown said.
News that makes sense
Your trusted source for staying up-to-date with the world around you. Get free daily news updates and analysis, straight to your inbox.
"There's certainly some areas of the game where we're not getting favourable calls.
"That happens when you're an underdog every week. The players aren't getting any calls at the moment - we got none last week (against Cronulla) and we certainly got none today.
"My job as the coach is to help coach the players to get it right in better situations. I'd love to comment but I don't have money available."
Much to Brown's chagrin, the Knights were denied four-pointers to Dane Gagai and Sione Mata'utia in the second stanza, but referees boss Tony Archer defended both decisions.
Gagai got over the line in the 55th minute, only for his side to be penalised because Mata'utia was found to have pushed Brenko Lee off the tackle.
Archer said because Mata'utia had interfered with Lee, who was unable to complete the tackle, the right decision had been made.
Archer also backed his whistleblowers after Mata'utia had a try turned down in the 73rd minute which could have potentially sent the game into golden point with a successful conversion.
Mata'utia beat the Bulldogs defenders to a Trent Hodkinson grubber but the ball slipped through his grasp as he fell to the turf and he failed to regain possession.
Brown argued that the video referees were searching for a reason not to award the try and, had it been any other side other than the Knights, who have run last over the previous two seasons, it wouldn't have been scrutinised so heavily.
"Sione's one, if it was a try they'd probably still be looking at it to make it not a try," Brown said.
"They looked at it about 85,000 times.
"At the end of the day we've got to make the play."
