The NRL’s ‘one punch and you are off’ edict appears to have taken a back seat for rugby league’s big day.
The biff is back – well, at least it was in the lead up to the main game anyway.
Late in the second half of Ipswich’s State Championship 26-12 win over Newcastle, an old fashioned brawl broke out at ANZ Stadium.
Ipswich’s Billy McConnachie could be seen clearly punching Knight Jake Mamo on repeated replays shown of the incident.
Referee Matt Noyen called a halt to proceedings and spoke to the players from either side.
But he neglected to send McConnachie to the sinbin for the mandatory 10 minutes brought in two seasons ago.
Noyen did however penalise the Jets for illegally taking out Mamo as he chased a kick in an incident which sparked the melee.
LeRoy Murray
Roar Rookie
Just to clarify things Billy has been charged with a Grade 2 Contrary Conduct charge for "running in to be involved in a melee in an aggressive manner". Apparently there is no footage showing him throw a punch so this has been the charge he has been hit with so the hysteria by people like Green & the NSW media is just that, hysteria. On the subject of Billy, he came from Mt Isa at the start of the 2013 season & has gone from a fringe reserve grader to man of the match in the ISC GF & I believe has some NRL talent scouts interested in him. He is showing that hard work can indeed pay off if you are prepared to stick to it
Niall
Guest
Did anyone else see Mamo carrying on after getting back a ball that had run dead? Waving the ball about and just being a goose. Doesn't mean the bloke shouldn't have been sent but Mamo doesn't come across well with his antics. There's quite a few young blokes in the game carrying on like idiots. On the brightside, McConnachie actually looks a good player. Might have an NRL future.
Casper
Guest
He needed punching with his carry on throughout that match. Did his NRL prospects some harm
Jeremy
Guest
It still was a punch from behind on Mamo, should gave been sent.
Emcie
Roar Guru
The Newcastle number 4 seemed to want to start a fight every time he was involved in a tackle
up in the north
Roar Rookie
I only watched the first half but Newcastle were pretty grubby in the rucks with plenty of head shots during tackles. Glad no one was sent off though.
jamesb
Guest
Qld RL on fire ATM. Origin, NRL and state championship are all won by their respective Qld sides.
Emcie
Roar Guru
You may have missed Momo giving a guy an uppercut as well