Monday, July 19, 2004
Smith slams penalties
Eels coach Brian Smith was highly critical of the number of penalties that went against the Eels in the post-match media conference.
While admitting "our game hasn't got it right yet", Smith said: "We didn't reach the heights that we set ourselves particularly knowing that we needed to do that here and the job got bigger with that whopping series of penalties that started the game off for us".
"Don't get me wrong. At the end of the day we didn't play nearly well enough to suggest that we could have won this game..it would however have been nice to find out without the extra load," Smith added.
He pointed to the high-shot on Nathan Hindmarsh that didn't draw a penalty, while the Eels got pinged for a number of penalties of that ilk.
"There was a lot of things that drew penalties and some that didn't. Nathan Hindmarsh got whacked and the guy faces a potential suspension but instead of lying down he thought better of it," Smith said.
"It was interesting to see the comparison particularly in relation to some of the penalties we were called for."
While admitting "our game hasn't got it right yet", Smith said: "We didn't reach the heights that we set ourselves particularly knowing that we needed to do that here and the job got bigger with that whopping series of penalties that started the game off for us".
"Don't get me wrong. At the end of the day we didn't play nearly well enough to suggest that we could have won this game..it would however have been nice to find out without the extra load," Smith added.
He pointed to the high-shot on Nathan Hindmarsh that didn't draw a penalty, while the Eels got pinged for a number of penalties of that ilk.
"There was a lot of things that drew penalties and some that didn't. Nathan Hindmarsh got whacked and the guy faces a potential suspension but instead of lying down he thought better of it," Smith said.
"It was interesting to see the comparison particularly in relation to some of the penalties we were called for."
