Both Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold and skipper Daly Cherry-Evans believes “something happened” to spark Luke Brooks’ angry pushing match with Panthers halfback Jarome Luai.
Following Luai being tackled by teammate Ben Trbojevic, Brooks and Luai were engaged in a heated push and shove, with Penrith scoring whilst they had hold of each other.
Seibold was asked about the moment in the post-match press conference, and was confident there was some sort of foul play involved in the tackle.
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“Brooks is not a renowned scrapper, so obviously something happened,” Seibold said.
Cherry-Evans then interjected and explained: “I think he saw something there, I think he was looking after his teammates.
“So you can obviously read into it that you thought he might have got baited, but he obviously saw something there,” he said.
“He was just sticking up for his teammates, I like what he did there. I don’t think he gave away a try, I think there was something there.”
Following the four-pointer being awarded, both Cherry-Evans and Brooks argued with referee Gerard Sutton on their way to the kick-off.
Sutton warned both players from continuing to berate him, and nothing came of the moment before the Panthers went on to win 32-22.
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When asked if Penrith wouldn’t have scored if Brooks was in the defensive line, Cherry-Evans said “I’m not sure” whilst smiling.
Meanwhile, Seibold added: “We had enough changes, obviously something happened on the floor with Ben Trbojevic so he’s sticking up for his teammates.
“If you really dig down a little bit deeper and look at what happened, Broosky is not a fighter and has been a really fair player for a long time.
“But ultimately they scored so they were too smart for us.”