NRL head of football Graham Annesley has conceded match officials made two costly mistakes that cruelled North Queensland against Manly on Saturday.

The Cowboys went down 22-20 at 1300SMILES Stadium in a game filled with controversy.

"I have to say that it probably wasn't our best weekend on the field for incidents [last] week," Annesley prefaced his weekly debrief.

Leading by 10 points in the 45th minute, North Queensland's night went downhill following an incorrect line dropout ruling which should have been a penalty to the home side.

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North Queensland captain Michael Morgan questioned lead referee Adam Gee about the call, and Annesley said the playmaker had valid cause to be upset.

"It's not momentum that takes him [Kyle Feldt] back into the in-goal. It was actually a lift and a push [from Daly Cherry-Evans] that pushes him back into the in-goal area," Annesley said.

"In that case, it should have been a penalty for pushing him back into the in-goal area."

On the ensuing set, Cowboys winger Enari Tuala was pinged for stripping the ball with multiple players in the tackle when Sea Eagles centre Moses Suli was about to score.

Instead of Tuala sprinting the distance to touch down for North Queensland, Manly retained possession and claimed a try through Jorge Taufua.

The NRL Rules state that defenders can steal the ball even if there are several tacklers provided "the player in possession is attempting to ground the ball for a try."

Gee reasoned that a rake was illegal because Suli was not in the act of scoring despite being close to the try-line.

And while Annesley agreed with Gee on that point, he believes Suli simply lost possession without help from the Cowboys – meaning Tuala was entitled to set sail for a try.

"On review, we believe it's a loose carry and the ball comes out and is then picked up by the Cowboys defender, who starts to race downfield with the ball," Annesley said.

"Even though there's more than one player in the tackle, we don't believe the intention was to strip.

"We believe the intention was to tackle and the ball came out in the course of that tackle and should have been play on."

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Annesley backed the Bunker's decision to disallow a North Queensland try for obstruction in the 55th minute, however.

Debutant Reuben Cotter appeared to have crossed for a maiden four-pointer shortly after running onto the field, but Manly second-rower Curtis Sironen was deemed to have been impeded in the lead-up.

The decision angered Cowboys coach Paul Green, who addressed the incident after the match.

“I wasn’t happy about it,” Green said. “I couldn’t hear the audio but I couldn’t understand how [it was overturned].”

Annesley said the contact from lead runner Shane Wright on Sironen was "minimal" but insisted it was enough to deny Sironen a fair shot at completing a tackle.

"We've looked at this closely and we do believe the video referee got this correct," he said.

"You might say there's not a lot in that contact. Some might suggest it's a poor read in defence.

"... But in this case the lead runner's got a responsibility not to impact the defence."