Barrett miffed by Bulldogs' penalty woes
Canterbury coach Trent Barrett claims he is at a loss as to why his team is penalised so harshly by NRL referees, arguing South Sydney "had to earn nothing" in their 32-24 win over the Bulldogs.
Just a month after claiming he would seek a please-explain from the NRL after the Bulldogs loss to Parramatta, Barrett again pointed to a lopsided penalty count against his side on Sunday.
"There are a lot of things. We made far too many yardage errors tonight ... We only had four good-ball sets the whole game," Barrett said.
"Again we're on the end of a 7-1 six-to-go (count) again, on the end of 7-3 penalties again.
"They had to earn nothing, and so we're sitting here again in the same position.
"How we are that much worse, or ill-disciplined in that area, with the six-to-gos and the penalties, I just don't know."
Statistically, the Bulldogs have been on the bad end of penalty counts this year.
They have won just five counts in 17 matches, while the 87 they have conceded this year compared to 60 earned makes for the biggest negative differential against one side.
When asked after the Rabbitohs loss if he believed the penalties were being determined based on ladder position, Barrett responded "you know I can't answer that".
Meanwhile, Barrett also wanted answers on what made Lachlan Lewis snap on halftime after he tackled Cody Walker to the ground as players were walking from the field.
The incident saw Lewis sin-binned as South Sydney score eight points while he was off the field, which ended up being the final margin.
Barrett said the result couldn't be blamed on Lewis being binned, but questioned if a player could be punished like that after the whistle had been blown.
"I didn't know you could get 10 minutes in the walking off at halftime," Barrett said.
"He didn't hit him or anything but obviously something's happened.
"It was disappointing, but that wasn't the reason we lost the game.
"We had our chances to win it. Every time we went down there, we troubled them. The sad thing for us is we only got down there four times."
