But former NRL referees boss Bill Harrigan says it was "spot on" before admitting there had been inconsistencies in penalising similar incidents throughout the season.

The Raiders were reduced to 12 men at a crucial time of their narrow 14-12 loss to the minor premiers in Melbourne on Saturday night.

With the Storm leading 8-6 in the 60th minute, Wighton was binned for 10 minutes for a professional foul on Melbourne winger Marika Koroibete after the Fijian flyer broke from inside his own 10 metres.

Wighton made a brilliant last-man tackle to bring down Koroibete, but was given his marching orders for holding the Storm winger down too long to give his teammates time to recover.

The Storm scored on the next set to set up what proved to be a match-winning lead.

Mullins said Wighton's sin binning was one of three bad calls, which also included the penalty the Storm got to open the scoring.

Raiders star hooker Josh Hodgson was penalised for infringing in the ruck, but Storm lock Dale Finucane had simply lost the ball.

Mullins said "it was a bit of a joke" for the referees to use the sin bin for an incident that has been a penalty all season.

But he said the Raiders still had their chances to win the game so they had to "take the good with the bad".

"It was pretty ordinary to be honest with you. I thought there were three bad calls we got, but it's over and done with now so no use whinging about it," Mullins said.

"Honestly I thought we got rorted, but we had a few opportunities and we dropped a few balls so you take the good with the bad.

"In a game like that, to get into a grand final, to bring that [sin bin] out I thought it was a bit of a joke. But the officials these days are so inconsistent you never know what you're going to get."

Harrigan watched the game as part of Triple M's call and praised the "strength" of the referees to make the call.

But the former whistleblower said that was the decision that should have been made the whole season – not just in a match when a spot in the grand final is on the line.

"A very good decision, showed strength of the referee too. It was spot on. If he didn't sin bin him I'd have been critical of the decision saying it wasn't strong enough," Harrigan said.

"That's the fault of the referee's coach [any inconsistency], because more of them should have been doing that.

"At least that bloke last night showed a bit of ticker and when it had to be done he did it.

"He told [Wighton] to get out of there a couple of times and even went up and told him to get out there when he was getting up – he still had his hand on the ball.

"So Jack Wighton was prepared to give away the penalty knowing his team was under the pump and that's what the sin bin's for."

Hodgson didn't want to comment on the Wighton decision, instead putting his hand up to shoulder some of the responsibility for the loss.

While the England international starred this season for the Raiders and was a major reason they went deep into the finals, he felt he gave away a couple of penalties that contributed to the loss.

He said the refs made a mistake with the first one, which Storm captain Cameron Smith converted to open the scoring, but put his hand up for the second – from which Smith made the score 14-6.

"The second one to make it eight points clear I can't really argue with that. I didn't realise the tackle was over, I went to pull him to keep hold of his shorts," Hodgson said.

"Sometimes you get the rub of the green, sometimes you don't and we didn't tonight. But fare credit to Melbourne they played well and good luck to them in the final."

Fairfax Media was unable to contact NRL referees' boss Tony Archer.