AFTER watching his side slip from the top eight following yesterday's defeat to Canberra, Newcastle coach Brian Smith was asked if he could find anything positive out of the match. "It's over," he bluntly replied.

But the inquest into the performance of Ben Cummins was only just beginning. Raiders coach Neil Henry suggested the Canberra-based whistleblower was far from a home-town referee, and said he never performed well in the capital.

Smith said he doubted Cummins refereed better anywhere else. "I've spent a lot of time throughout the year conversing and trying to work with [referees' boss] Robert Finch, and that particular referee we had today has come up in many of our conversations, [and] not just in our games," Smith said. "I have observed him refereeing other teams and [there have been] strings of penalties. Two weeks ago, it was an 11-1 count at Shark Park [at half-time in Cronulla's clash with Souths]."

The penalty count yesterday finished 10-8 in favour of the Raiders, but the Knights felt Cummins had been particularly vigilant towards them. "Every time you concede a penalty there is a strong likelihood the opposition is going to score - it's more likely than any other start of play," Smith said. "It's been drummed into our guys. We all know what the rules are.

"The last time we had that referee, we conceded four penalties - it's the same players, same coach, same referee … how do you work that out? It's too hard for me. It's a waste of time trying to figure it out. We bend over backwards working to be compliant with the key indicators [referees use to help them decide whether to award a penalty] and it's just a pointless exercise. We've wasted a whole heap of time in that area in our training."

Asked his view on Cummins's performance, Henry said: "He's a Canberra boy, but in my personal opinion, I don't think he's ever handled that well. I don't think he's ever been on song here - and that's for both sides. I don't think he handles coming back home, and I'll leave it at that."

The 20-point loss dropped the Knights to 11th on for-and-against after wins for the Warriors and Penrith over the weekend, but they will move to 10th if Wests Tigers lose by more than two points against Parramatta tonight.

"In no way am I understating the performance of the Raiders today - they were too good for us - but I didn't think we ever got on the front foot," Smith said. "Whether [or not that was because of] the referee - some of it was obviously the quality of the way the Raiders played - but we just couldn't get into it. The whole thing was a muddle, it wasn't a game of footy. It was hard to understand lots of things that were happening."