Shark Park was a mysterious, dark place yesterday. The floodlights were on full beam as the heavy clouds rolled in, but many things happened in the hyped-up clash between Cronulla and the Bulldogs, and yet no one saw anything.

Take Bulldogs hard nut Kane Cleal. He ended up "scratching on the ground", as was eloquently described by teammate Mark O'Meley midway through the second half. Cleal's jaw was shattered and blood streamed from his split bottom lip. But everyone missed the hit.

Take the blatant interference accorded to Bulldogs fullback Luke Patten as he tried to get near a grubber kick in the Cronulla in-goal area. What could have been a penalty try at best, or a penalty to the Bulldogs at worst, became a line drop-out. Referee Shayne Hayne missed it, so, too, touch judges Steve Lyons and Russell Turner, and, incredibly, so did video referee Phil Cooley.

Take the last goal conversion attempted by Bulldogs winger Hazem El Masri. He lined it up square with the winning try scored by Daryl Millard only to told before the attempt to move it six or seven metres closer to the sideline. Somehow the officials misread where the try was scored. El Masri is a sharp kicker, but hardly needs extra obstacles. The kick went across the face of the goal posts.

O'Meley said in the dressing room that he thought it was a high shot from Sharks prop Ben Ross that inflicted the damage on Cleal, although Cleal had been brought to a shuddering halt not long before by a Paul Gallen shoulder charge.

"Ben Ross dropped him. He got him against the side of the mouth … his teeth were gone, his mouth was all split," O'Meley recalled.

"He was scratching at the ground, and I saw straight away he had broken his jaw. There was a break in play, and I said to the referee, he [Ross] should go on report but he just played on. It was like no one saw it. Ben had come over the top. It wasn't Gallen."

When told of O'Meley's claims, Ross said: "I wouldn't have a clue … If he has broken his jaw, he would be in a fair bit of pain to remember."

Ross was informed Cleal was in the emergency department of the Baulkham Hills Hospital. "That is a bit far," he said when asked if he would visit him.

Meanwhile, the mystery non-decision of what could have been a penalty try was something coach Steve Folkes was trying to work out well after the full-time whistle.

"Patten was certainly held off the ball," he said. "I don't know if it was a penalty try or not, but it was certainly a penalty. How three officials missed it is beyond me. Surely someone was on it."

The incident came in the 46th minute when the Bulldogs were 12 points down. It appeared that Gallen pulled Patten's arm and held him off the ball, preventing any chance of touching down for a try.

Meanwhile, no one, except El Masri, noticed that the referee was very harsh in his estimation of the conversion kick position. It meant little to the result as Millard's try had given the Bulldogs a two-point lead.

"I missed that, I didn't see it," Folkes said. Stand-in captain Corey Hughes said he wasn't aware of it, either. The big mystery might be how El Masri managed to miss two goals. But surely a bigger one is how a referee who could find the first penalty in a State of Origin match only in the 51st minute, found 17 penalties yesterday. But that, everyone saw.