Manly Sea Eagles vs Brisbane Broncos highlights: NRL live scores, blog

Don't be ridiculous. If David mead has purposefully injured Tom then I'm the one who framed OJ. Mead went up in what was a legal play with two objectives in mind. The primary objective was to force a mistake from Tom and the secondary was to put manly under severe pressure close to their try line. Yes tom came down awkwardly and unfortunately may have suffered a severe injury, but to try and display it as if David Mead is some kind of thug is a bit rich.

I think they still let you tackle in the air while defending in goal, don't they? the wiki discussing the 2001 rule change indicated that they consciously preserved an inconsistency in that case. So they're already in the business of picking and choosing when safety is paramount, or when it alters how the game is played.

Sam Hill is right, in fact both of you are. It is legal, but it's still dangerous and I agree with both of you the rule needs clarity. If the player is off the ground they must be going for the ball, which implies any tackler inside distance must be able to go for the ball too. So just go for the ball, or lay off until the bloke hits terra firma and then take him out. I'm not saying David Mead has a case to answer, he doesn't under the rules as they stand. But Tommy Turbo would agree he was vulnerable for a second there and under normal circumstances he would have been protected. Shame to lose a player his caliber for an extended period.

Purposefully injured? Seriously? You really think that Mead deliberately sought to rupture ligaments in his opponent's leg by making that tackle? What utter rubbish.

Lots of things are dangerous in our game! We cant stop them all. Would you then make it illegal to tackle a player who jumps to catch a pass too? Remember, you are allowed to tackle an attacking player who jumps to catch a bomb.

Wow what a silly comment, Sam Hill! Would you also want it to be illegal to tackle a player who jumps to catch a pass too? I agree in some aspects, such as that it is legal to tackle an attacking player in the air. This one always confused me.

If it wasn't that way, players could just jump in the air to catch every pass, or every bouncing grubber kick and be invulnerable from the defence.

At the end of the day, the referee made his decision.

Good win to Brisbane. Manly need to learn that the game goes for 80 minutes. Momentum has become such a massive part of the game, whether it be from a mistake or a refs call. There is no denying that momentum shifts in footy these days make for great drama. A disappointed Manly fan , but all in all the loss was of their doing and they will learn plenty about the importance of closing a game out. By the way it was Nikorimas best game. Did himself plenty of favours.

Interesting to read several comments stating that a player may be tackled in the air after a kick has bounced. That must be a commonly ruled interpretation because in the international rules of rugby league there is nothing to state that any tackle on a player jumping for a kicked ball is legal. It really needs to be cleared up regardless, and I would expect some comment from the NRL this week as to what the rule will be going forward. The tackle on Trbojevic was no less dangerous than tackling a player who is jumping to catch a ball on the full. If people are serious about making the game safer then it should really be deemed an illegal tackle.

I try not to dive into the whole ref bias thing, but this is just ridiculous. Brisbane were not favoured tonight. It's as simple as that. Penalty count was 5-5 and from memory 3 of the manly penalties given away were all deliberately given away in the last minute or so of the first half defending their line. "No other team is allowed (to win?) in Brisbane-ever." That's got to be a laugh hasn't it? If the game is so rigged in Brisbanes favour, then why don't they have another 15 premierships hanging up?

The biggest gripe here from manly should be that the rules allow you to attack the player post bounce. If you want dubious calls, you'd need to balance that five metre forward pass against any complaint. The simple truth is that being 14 points up, Manly had good opportunity to close out the game, against a brisbane side that has struggled to deal with even injury hit or cellar dwelling sides in recent weeks. If you play well and lose unfairly, you get to be annoyed. But I'm just not sure you can blame the ref completely for not scoring for 70 minutes.

The line is common sense. If you think this is the same as diving for the line, you may have a gross misunderstanding of the way NRL works.

Oh, man, totally a strip. Except for the fact that Kahu's hand had already come away from the arm and the ball while Taufua had still had possession and it was the impact with the ground that knocked it loose. Totally a strip, though...

If you think it's no different if the ball bounces or not, you better also agree that it shouldn't matter if it's the defending or attacking team, because if it didn't bounce and it was Trbojevic making a tackle on Mead, that's also fair game under the current rules. So if we change the rule to protect the attacking team as well, what about when a winger is doing a big aerial dive for the corner? Or any player jumping into a tackle. Technically, they are in the air. The line has to be drawn somewhere, it's been drawn where it is, and it's been pretty black and white for a while. Also, they were both in the air when they collided. I'm not saying it was a clear attempt to get to the football, but this is no where near one of those times where a player doesn't jump and deliberately takes out the jumper...

Agree. It's time for a coffee and bed for Joel!

Landed awkwardly because of the dangerous tackle from Mead. At the end of the day, Mead was deliberate in his attack on Trbojevic in the air, so anything that happens from that point forward is on him.

Hope you enjoyed the night EJ.... witnessed two good games of footy!

Did your letter also complain about how they let manly score from a 5m forward pass that Tommy threw for the Taufua try?