Furious Cronulla coach Ricky Stuart has taken aim at officials over their decision to send Sharks captain Trent Barrett to the sin bin for an alleged grapple tackle in Saturday's narrow 14-10 loss to Melbourne.
Barrett was binned late in the first half when referees Ben Cummins and Brett Suttor lost patience with the Sharks skipper after both sides conceded a raft of penalties during a scrappy yet willing contest.
Ten of the 19 penalties blown during the match were awarded in the opening quarter, with both sides guilty of numerous indiscretions around the ruck.
But while Melbourne winger Anthony Quinn was placed on report for an elbow on Sharks enforcer Paul Gallen, Barrett was the only player sent from the field in the fiery encounter.
"It cost us the game in the end," Stuart said of Barrett's stint in the sin bin.
"They scored off that next set or the set after down the edge that Trent defends."
"I just ask, is every so called grapple - I've got to see it again but I think it was a (ruled to be a) grapple - but the scrum beforehand he said 'there's been a number of consecutive penalties, so I don't know if we got Trent binned for a grapple or a number of consecutive penalties."
"So once they read this tomorrow, it'll give them a couple of days to prepare their answer for me so that they're not wrong, so I'll just blame Trent."
"But in the end it cost us the game. I just want to know for whatever Trent was sin binned for, is that going to happen for the next 25 games?"
"I'll answer that now, no."
Asked if he had been given any indication as to why he was sin binned, Barrett said: "No. I spoke to him (Cummins) the set before and he said 'just watch there's too many penalties'. There was nothing about a grapple and that's frustrating because I didn't have him around the head anyway."
While furious over the controversial decision, Stuart could not fault his players' efforts after pushing the reigning premier to their limit.
"I thought it was a great start to the season, I got a lot out of it," Stuart said.
"I was really proud of their effort playing against the best club in the world and three of the best players in the world and I thought we did an outstanding job."
"We certainly get a lot out of that and improve and be better for it. I was very excited in regards to the way we handled Melbourne, they're a very, very good football team."
Meanwhile, the coach paid tribute to half-back Scott Porter, who took to the field despite the tragic death of his 38-year-old sister after suffering a heart attack on Friday night.
"It was a very tough effort," Stuart said of Porter who also lost his mother nine months ago.
"I didn't expect him to play but I went and sat down with him this morning at home with his father and it was more of a comfort call more than worrying about a game of football because I already had somebody else pencilled in for the position on (Friday) night when I found out the news."
"But this morning when I saw the look in his eye and saw that he'd had a number of hours sleep, and