Was Hasler 'on another planet'? NRL's shock admission after Raiders-Titans 'cheating' claims

But in a strange twist in the Ricky Stewart-versus-Des Hasler post-match fall-out, the NRL declared both coaches had grounds for their press conference complaints, with several missed calls in the 21-20 golden point thriller.

NRL's head of football Graham Annesley said on Monday that Stuart's issue with missed six-again calls and Hasler's suggestion of an offside Raiders charge-down, both had merit.

However, more significantly, Annesley confirmed that had Badger called for six-again following the offside charge-down on a blocked Kieran Foran field goal attempt, because the Titans received no advantage after the play, they would have been entitled to a penalty.

From right in front of the uprights, the Titans could have then kicked a penalty goal and won the game by two points. Instead, the Raiders won the ball following the charge-down, and in-form halfback Jamal Fogarty was later able to slot the game-winning field goal at the other end of the field.

Annesley carefully reviewed the footage as part of his weekly football briefing, and declared young Raiders debutant Chevy Stewart was off-side as Hasler said in his press conference.

"If we look at Chevy Stewart he is already off the line [when the ball is clear of the ruck]," Annesley explained.

"It's Chevy Stewart who charges the ball down. He, in this instance, is offside."

"That was an error and it should have been picked up by the touch judges. It's a miss by the match officials," he added.

Despite his review, Annesley did not want to comprehensively conclude that the refereeing errors cost the Titans the win, believing that there's "never one incident that determines the outcome of a game - there's hundreds of incidents".

"It's an imperfect game, played by imperfect players, controlled by imperfect referees and they won't get everything. Although we'd like them to get these calls right, it's just human error," he said.

Annesley said the bunker was unable to review 10-metre compliance due to play in between lines on the field making it too difficult to consistently and accurately assess via video replay.

Hasler was proven correct with his offside complaint, though the Titans coach's criticism of Badger's six-again calls against his side were not, according to statistics provided by Annesley.

The football boss showed that the Titans conceded five penalties and eight set restarts to the Raiders' three penalties and one set restart. Statistics also depicted the Raiders being better in their 10-metre compliance than the Titans overall, and therefore "more disciplined".

Stuart accused Hasler of being "on another planet" with his assertion the "lopsided" penalty and six-again count was unfair, prompting the Raiders coach to hit back, arguing that more calls should have actually gone against the Titans for infringements.

And Annesley's statistics showed that Stuart was right, with 28 further offside calls on the Titans missed, and only 10 missed by officials against the Raiders.

"The referee coaching staff will go through these that were conceded by the Titans and Raiders and do a full assessment and whether they should have been awarded or not," Annesley said.

Stuart praised Badger's refereeing performance in the game, but didn't appreciate the slowing down of the ruck by the Titans and said he would speak to NRL officiating boss Jared Maxwell about the issue.

Stuart was vindicated by Annesley's statistics that the 2024 league-wide average for play-the-ball time was 3.47 seconds.

In every game the Raiders have played this year they have averaged 3.4 seconds or less. However, against the Titans the Raiders averaged their slowest play-the-ball time yet - 3.63 seconds - much slower than the Titans' 3.46 seconds in the game.

"If [Hasler's] critical of the six-agains and the penalties, he's on another planet," the Raiders coach said in his press conference.

"He coached well ... but the way they cheated when they were standing there with their hand on the ball ... the way they cheated on the ground.

"I feel sorry for Kasey the way they were in her face all night ... she had to withstand a lot of pressure.

"We were told at the start of the year if you're going to be a repeat offender, you'll get sent.

"Have a look at the amount of repeat offenders, look at the amount of extra seconds they had on the ground.

"We should have got another 10 or 12 six-agains."

Des Hasler has blamed the referee for their "heartbreaking" loss, but Raiders coach Ricky Stuart has fired back saying the Gold Coast coach was "on another planet".

Hasler wasn't happy with referee Kasey Badger's performance, with the number of six-agains and the Chevy Stewart charge down his biggest gripes.

He said the Titans were hard done by as they went down in the final minute of golden point.

Not only was he left bemoaning the eight six-agains they were charged with, but he also said Stewart was offside when he charged down Kieran Foran's field-goal attempt.

But Stuart was having none of it.

While he was full of praise for Hasler's - assistant coach Brett White's - coaching performance he wasn't happy with Hasler's claims.

Stuart countered that repeat offenders of six-agains were meant to be sin binned and the Titans can count themselves lucky they kept 13 men of the field for the whole game.

He praised Badger's work and said he was more than happy to turn the game into a wrestlefest - like the Titans had.

Stuart said he was more than happy to talkk to NRL umpire's boss Jared Maxwell.

"He's on another planet. If he's critical of the six-agains and the penalties, he's on another planet," the Raiders coach said.

"He coached well ... but the way they cheated when they were standing there with their hand on the ball ... the way they cheated on the ground.

"I feel sorry for Kasey the way they were in her face all night ... she had to withstand a lot of pressure.

"We were told at the start of the year if you're going to be a repeat offender, you'll get sent.

"Have a look at the amount of repeat offenders, look at the amount of extra seconds they had on the ground.

"I'm gonna be making sure I ring Jared [on Monday] to find out who's right or wrong there, because I thought Kasey, under pressure, she did a really good job.

"We should have got another 10 or 12 six-agains."

Hasler also took aim at Stewart's chargedown, saying he'd watched back the footage and said he was at least one metre offside.

He asked whether the bunker had reviewed it - all field-goal attempts were meant to be.

It was a brilliant effort from Stewart in his very first NRL game - showing a wise head on 18-year-old shoulders.

"In my opinion, the refereeing performance was pretty poor," Hasler said.

"A lop-sided penalty count, and particularly in the area of 10 six-agains to one.

"Some of those are warranted ... some of them just leaves you battling field position the whole time.

"Possession ends up 60-40, sure, some of that's our own fault but it's difficult.

"And I've got some doubt around the offside nature of the charge-down.

"Did they review it? They didn't review it. So why not? So from that point of view, it was heartbreaking."