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The NRL judiciary or the NRL bunker – which is worse? Last night saw the worst of the former.
In the round that was, Shark Michael Ennis shoulder charged the Storm’s Blake Green, but wasn’t cited.
Raider Jack Wighton shoulder charged Tiger Joel Edwards, and was cited. He faced a three-week suspension with an early guilty plea, but four weeks if he fought the charge and lost.
Either way, Wighton’s season looked history as the finals series started.
That the two incidents were treated so vastly differently made rugby league fans hopping mad, and further damaged the credibility of the judiciary with its inconsistency.
What a joke, with worse to come.
Last night Chris McKenna was scheduled to join Mal Cochrane and Sean Garlick as the judiciary for the Wighton hearing. Somehow, McKenna missed his flight from Brisbane.
The hearing was delayed for nearly 60 minutes to give the called up Royce Ayliffe time to replace the missing McKenna.
How farcical was McKenna for being so tardy as to be late for his plane.
As it turned out, an hour after Ayliffe fronted, Wighton beat the charge.
Wighton was like a rabbit in the headlights when he was interviewed after the decision – “I was surprised I got charged, it was just one of those tackles that looked a bit worse than what it was”.
There’s no point in Wighton buying a Lotto ticket for awhile, he had all his luck last night.
By coincidence Ennis and Wighton will play against each other in a qualifying final on Saturday at GIO Stadium on Saturday at 5.30pm.
So a consistent result for a change from the judiciary, for all the wrong reasons.
The no charge against Ennis was wrong, while Wighton was rightfully charged, but wrongfully let off.
Will the judiciary ever get it right?
Shoulder charging is a serious offence and it was brought in to protect ball carriers, especially from being blind-sided.
Ennis and Wighton were both frontal attacks, but still potentially very dangerous to the ball carrier.
But when Ennis escaped, Wighton just had to be exonerated or the stink would have really hit the fan – and rightfully so.
Let’s hope the finals series are judiciary free, and the high standard of rugby league shown during the scheduled round continue.