The Penrith Panthers were left fuming after a last-second howler from the match officials cost them a shot at making the semi-finals in the Perth Nines.

Panthers halfback Nathan Cleary was left shaking his head after an NRL touch judge somehow awarded a try to Dragons rookie Cody Ramsey that cost the Panthers victory.

Replays clearly showed Ramsey was well into touch And the ball was nowhere near being grounded.

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The Panthers were leading with the clock counting down inside the final ten seconds.

“It sucks. Losing always suck but losing like that kind of hurts a bit more,” Cleary said.

“Hopefully we’ll get a couple of 50/50s now during the season that pays us back for that.

“I thought we didn’t play our best game and we put ourselves in that position.

“He’s a bit of a beast especially out on the edge and Api Korisau in the middle looked amazing as well.

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“Really looking forward to playing some 13-a-side footy with them.”

Asked for the reaction from the Panthers coaching staff and his old man Ivan, Cleary said:“ They were pretty filthy, obviously, straight after but it’s a pre-season tournament.

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“We’ll forget about it now. There’s no point dwelling about it. We just have to get back on the horse and we’ve got trials to look forward to now.”

In fairness, the Panthers did opt to take a short kickoff from a restart after hitting the front.

If they’d kicked deep, the Dragons may not have had time to score to win the game.