The first incident saw Lodge's elbow strike the face of Corey Harawira-Naera. Lodge was penalised but not put on report in the game, and later escaped with a $1000 fine from the match review committee.

The second controversial moment saw the Warriors big man floored by a seemingly soft high shot by Corey Horsburgh which led to a penalty goal to send the match into golden point.

Neither moment was dissected during Annesley's weekly briefing about the round eight action.

"It's very difficult to accuse a player of lying down, because obviously I don't know whether he was injured in a tackle or not," Annesley told The Canberra Times of the Horsburgh incident.

"There was some contact with the head and I've often said that if your target area is in that upper part of the shoulders, and something goes wrong, then you're at risk of being penalised."

When it came to Lodge making high contact with Harawira-Naera however, Annesley said it was a tougher "50-50 call" for officials on the day.

"I didn't review it, but I remember the incident, and whilst there was definitely a movement with his arm, there was a lot of contact with him as he was trying to clear himself to play the ball," Annesley said.

"It was dealt with on the field by the Bunker and match officials. It was one of those 50-50 calls that people will often talk about, and the match officials have to decide which way to take it."

Jack Wighton's dangerous throw on Reece Walsh was covered in the briefing with the subject a hot topic following Manly's Karl Lawton being sent off on Friday night in a similar tackle.

Lawton's effort was judged a grade-three offence, and with Wighton copping a grade-two charge, there was some surprise he wasn't at least sin-binned for the tackle.

"When there's more than one player involved in a tackle like that it's very hard for the match officials to dissect that in real-time to make a decision," Annesley said.

"Although we had a situation like Karl Lawton which was an appropriate decision, I think it's hard to be critical of the match officials and even the Bunker on Jack's tackle because they have to try and determine very quickly whether Jack is solely responsible or not, and to what extent."

As a result of the charge Wighton accepted a two-match ban, which will see him miss Friday's clash against the Bulldogs and next week's match in Cronulla.

With the team in 14th position on the NRL ladder and riding a five-game losing streak, Wighton's absence is a huge blow as the Raiders attempt to rescue their season. Matt Frawley is tipped to fill in for Wighton, with Sam Williams another option.

The Bulldogs will arrive in the capital with the chests puffed too having upset the Roosters in a thriller on Saturday. But last year's wooden-spooners aren't underestimating the deflated Raiders.

"They're still a quality team no matter who is on the park," Canterbury speedster Josh Addo-Carr said.

"Ricky Stuart has got a really tough side. Every time I've played the Raiders they're always physical, so we need to take that mentality down there."

ACT-born prop Paul Vaughan is also wary of his former Origin foe Josh Papalii.

"Everyone knows how hard it is to go down there and win at Canberra Stadium, especially on Friday," the Bulldog said.

"They've got a great forward pack. Papalii has been playing good footy for a long time now, so it's going to be a good test for us."

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