“They got it 100 per cent wrong, but we shouldn’t make it about that because it was an unbelievable promotion of the game itself.”
Tapine said he couldn’t comprehend referee Ashley Klein’s decision to sin-bin Young for “celebrating a good play”. Broncos coach Michael Maguire questioned whether Walsh’s contact truly was a headbutt, saying “it was probably more just conversation”.
“We’ll have a look at it down the track. There is emotion out there. They were both sent for a reason, so you move on.”
The Raiders will be on a six-day turnaround into hosting Cronulla next week and they will rue coughing up a 28-12 lead when the Broncos were down to 11 men given Pat Carrigan had also been marched for a shoulder charge on Morgan Smithies.
Walsh was the star in Brisbane’s rise from the depths, returning from the sheds to score his own scything try in the 65th minute and then to set up four-pointers for Josiah Karapani and Gehamat Shibasaki.
But it all looked in vain as Canberra closed in on full-time, still leading 28-26.
As Brisbane took one last, forlorn crack at a regular-time winner, in Walsh’s long-range field goal attempt, Zac Hosking made contact with his leg as his shot sailed wide.
But with the Bunker intervening and ruling dangerous contact against the Raiders back-rower, Walsh was awarded a level-up penalty from in front.
At 28 apiece, 10 minutes of extra time was the order of the day and it was not until Ben Hunt sent a long-range field goal sailing over that Brisbane triumphed.
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Brisbane will treasure the week’s rest while sweating the MRC’s findings on Walsh and Carrigan. Back-rower Brendan Piakura has suffered a suspected depressed cheekbone and Payne Haas was immense after being forced off early with an ankle injury.
″I’ve never experienced a team going through what they did, but I’m obviously very proud of my players,” Maguire said.
“They believed to the end. They worked hard for each other. There were a lot of players off their feet through various circumstances but just to see them fight the way they did, there’s something there that we talk about.”
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