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NRL match review committee chairman Greg McCallum has defended the decision not to charge Manly’s Steve Matai with dangerous contact.
The Kiwi centre was cleared of any charges after sliding in feet first in an attempt to prevent Brisbane’s Jharal Yow Yeh from scoring a try in his side’s 26-14 win on Friday.
His Manly teammate Tony Williams was charged with a grade two careless high tackle, after also being put on report for a challenge on Yow Yeh, but he too will be free to face the Warriors in the grand final with an early guilty plea.
Matai, with a poor history at the judiciary, appeared to be in grave danger of missing next Sunday’s grand final, but McCallum said having reviewed footage of the incident, there was no way the committee could have charged the 27-year-old.
“Matai led with his foot to try and stop the ball being put down,” McCallum told AAP.
“Had he made any contact at all with the player he would have been charged with dangerous contact and because the player was on the ground we looked to see if he dropped his knees and we were satisfied that he didn’t.
“Although his knee did come into contact after it hit the ground, he sort of slid into him and made some contact in the lower part of the player.
“The key things are that he didn’t drop knees first and he didn’t make contact with his foot, so that meant he couldn’t be charged.”
McCallum also denied the committee, which also includes former North Sydney Bears coach Peter Louis and NSW great Bradley Clyde, took into account that Matai could miss the grand final had he been charged.
“Absolutely not, players have been ruled out of grand finals because of a charge,” he said.
“We looked at it plenty of times, but the head-on shot is pretty compelling and it clearly shows what happened and we were satisfied that we had a good understanding of what he was trying to do with his foot.
“You have to have contact for there to be a charge, you can’t charge a player for missing or intending to do something.
“In Matai’s case the head-on shot clearly shows that to be the case and there was no contact with the foot.”
McCallum said the reaction of Yow Yeh after being caught made the situation look worse and believes he was still suffering from the effects of being caught with a high shot two minutes earlier from Williams.
McCallum also backed referee Shayne Hayne’s decision to put Matai on report.
“Yow Yeh had been hit pretty hard earlier and I would say, and although I am not a medical person, that he was winded rather than suffered any injury to the ribs,” McCallum said
“He was hit low down and I think people just assumed both knees hit him, but one knee didn’t make contact at all, it was only the second knee, which was his right knee, that made some contact with him.
“The incident is concerning that a player would go in like that, but the code is very specific, a charge couldn’t be made and all of the boxes couldn’t be ticked.
“Players are entitled to stop opponents scoring tries but it’s how you do it, if you use your foot and if any part of his foot had made contact with Yow Yeh’s body then Matai would have been charged.”
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