League: Manly grumpy, even after win

Angry Manly management want the National Rugby League (NRL) to investigate why bandaged New Zealand Warriors' hooker Nathan Fien was allowed to continue playing at Ericsson Stadium yesterday despite claims he was bleeding on opponents.

Sea Eagles chief executive Paul Cummings was to lodge a complaint with the NRL today claiming his players' health and safety could have been compromised during Manly's 26-20 victory.

Cummings said Manly staff complained five times that Fien should not be allowed to continue until a head wound was effectively bandaged.

Fien went to the sidelines for running repairs on several occasions before returning to the fray in headgear.

After Warriors second-rower Wairangi Koopu scored in the 54th minute, Sea Eagles captain Michael Monaghan approached referee Sean Hampstead, pointed to Fien and said: "Have I got to put in an official protest from our players?"

He was waved away but Manly centre Terry Hill added: "I've got blood all over me. It's not mine."

One Manly trainer then approached Hampstead while Stacey Jones was lining up the conversion and another brought it up with him before the restart.

"I'm keeping an eye on it," Hampstead said, ordering Fien off at the next scrum.

Fien said he could not see the problem.

"I cut my head open midway through the first half," he said.

"It was probably a head clash with one of my own players. I thought they had taped it up pretty well. Maybe there was some blood in my hair or something."

Ground manager Ken Loza will also be invited to give his version of events.

Meanwhile, the triumphant Sea Eagles were also unhappy that drug testing threatened to delay their departure from Auckland.

Nominated players Brent Kite and Jason King had been too dehydrated to comply with the testers in the Eagles' dressing room and the team was in a rush to make a 6.30pm flight to Sydney.

Warned they risked losing competition points from their victory if the players boarded the flight home without submitting to the drugs test, the props eventually supplied a sample at the airport.

"The rule is a joke," Manly's communications manager Peter Peters told The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper.

"We have to get a flight at 6.30pm. If the players don't catch it, where do they stay? Who pays for it?"

- NZPA