It comes after NRL head of football Graham Annesley backed referee Chris Sutton's decision to sin bin Raiders star Jack Wighton - with Annesley saying on Monday it was close but the five-eighth was offside.

Stuart was furious with the refereeing following the Green Machine's gutsy 26-14 victory over the New Zealand Warriors at Canberra Stadium on Sunday.

They not only overcame being a man down for 10 minutes, but also a series of head knocks that saw them lose England halfback George Williams for most of the game, while captain Jarrod Croker and winger Semi Valemei also had to go off for head injury assessments before returning.

It meant at one stage second-rower Elliott Whitehead was playing halfback when both Williams and Wighton were off the field.

Wighton was sent to the sin bin for the Raiders' repeated infringements, with the five-eighth ruled to be offside.

Stuart showed his frustration at the decision at the time by throwing a bottle of water out of the coach's box.

He was still furious after the game in the post-match press conference because he felt Wighton wasn't offside and the referee had got it wrong.

Stuart also said that while Annesley was a "really nice man" the two were "planets apart" when it came to rugby league.

He also said "if I say anything you just get pay back", which could be what gets him in trouble.

Penrith coach Ivan Cleary was fined $20,000 for saying the officials "managed" the Raiders back into the game against them earlier in the season.

Annesley showed footage that the Australia international left fractionally before the play-the-ball was complete.

It was a split-second decision, but one he said the officials got right.

He said Wighton couldn't move until the ball had cleared the ruck - which was when the play-the-ball was finished after it had been heeled backwards.

But Annesley wouldn't be drawn on Stuart's comments about their differences, preferring to discuss them with the premiership winning coach in private.

"The reason he went to the sin bin was continuous infringements - there'd been three successive penalties against the Raiders," Annesley said.

"I've got nothing to say publicly about Ricky's views on that. Ricky and I will talk and we'll sort that out.

"All I'm interested in is facts and this was a controversial decision. It resulted in a player going to the sin bin.

"These are big decisions ... all I can do in these briefings on Monday is try to determine whether a controversial decision was in fact right or wrong.

"This is a very, very tight decision. There's a split second in it, but he's either onside or he's off.

"I'm not going to hang the officials out to dry when we've got evidence to say they were right."

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Annesley was unsure whether the Raiders had been warned about repeated infringements in the lead-up to Wighton's dismissal.

But he said it was irrelevant.

In fact, he said warnings were counterproductive because players then knew they couldn't be sin binned until they'd been given one - pushing the limits in the meantime.

"It's not important. We made it very clear at the start of the year there is no need for players or teams or captains to be warned about mutual infringements," Annesley said.

"In fact, it's counterproductive because players then have the opportunity to push the boundaries knowing full well they're not in any danger of going to the sin bin until they get a warning.

"It's not in the best interests of the game to give warnings.

"Players should know when they've pushed the referee to a point where it's close to the referee taking stronger action."

At the time of Wighton's sin-binning the Raiders asked if they could challenge the call, only to be told offside wasn't an offence that came under the captain's challenge.

Annesley said it would only open a can of worms at almost every play, like when a referee was playing advantage to see how it unfolded.

"No I don't think so. There's lots of things you can challenge in this game ... [but] if you allow challenges on 10 metres we'll get into all sorts of drama at almost every play-the-ball," he said.

"I think in the area of the 10m it's far too difficult to have captain's challenges about being offside."

NRL ROUND 20

Saturday: Canberra Raiders v Cronulla Sharks at Kogarah Oval, 5.30pm.