Grand final bound! Billy Slater free to play NRL decider

Let's hope now Billy Slater is free, he can bring home the premership - to the home of Rugby League, Melbourne, its birth place.

Have to strongly disagree with you Paul. The suggestion that, had the roles been reversed the sharks would have made it to the final, is patently absurd. We must have watched a different game.

Appalling decision to let him off. Blatant shoulder charge and it has been lost on everyone the impact it had on Feki, he ended up face planting the ground but was not seriously injured. There is a fine line between this causing serious damage to a player which everybody seems to ignore. This has taken the gloss off this GF because at the end of the day , neither Melbourne Storm or Billy Slater suffered any consequences from the tackle. It was just a penalty to the Sharks and helped Melbourne stay in the game at that point and ultimately win it.

Whatever you think Barry

i dont think the decision really makes sense based on what the criteria for the decision was supposed to be judiciary chairman Geoff Bellew asked panel members to consider the following. “1. Was there forceful contact with the shoulder or upper arm?” Bellew said if their answer was no, then he needed to be found not guilty. “If you answer yes, you need to consider: 2. Was the forceful contact made without Slater using or attempting to use both his arms including his hands to tackle or otherwise take hold of the opposing player. “3. Was Slater’s conduct careless? I remind you he is charged with a careless act, not an intentional act.” however he was always very likely to get off. the judiciary are humans and with a guilty verdict everyone would be talking about them in terms of this controversy for the next 20 years however with a not guilty we all talk about it for a few days and then the fairytale story takes over. they definitely would have been doing their best to go with the latter and its not like they are supreme court judges who have years and years of impartiality drilled into them.

it wasnt the only option, he could have flying side kicked him through the neck. thats against the rules though and MAY have seen him get suspended for his last match

the rules are pretty clear as stated by the judiciary charman. you need to try and use both hands to make a tackle. whats not clear is how they saw that occurring

Thanks soapit

judiciary chairman required him to use both his hands to make the tackle, not just have contact with them

sorry, paragraphs seem to be broken on my pc

https://www.nrl.com/news/2018/09/25/billy-slater-found-not-guilty-of-shoulder-charge-at-judiciary---free-to-play-grand-final/ Slater's lawyer Nick Ghabar successfully argued that the first point of contact in Slater's tackle was with his pec, not his shoulder, and that Feki's angled run left Slater with no option but to make the try-saving tackle in the way he did. judiciary chairman Geoff Bellew asked panel members to consider the following. "1. Was there forceful contact with the shoulder or upper arm?" Bellew said if their answer was no, then he needed to be found not guilty. "If you answer yes, you need to consider: 2. Was the forceful contact made without Slater using or attempting to use both his arms including his hands to tackle or otherwise take hold of the opposing player. "3. Was Slater's conduct careless? I remind you he is charged with a careless act, not an intentional act." doesnt say what actually made him not guilty from all that. 2 seems the most likely but definitely doesnt try and use his left hand. clear as mud

Why is their so much hate on Billy? He would have done what anyone would have done to play the GF and his final game. He challenged his charge through the appropriate channels and proved his case. If their is anyone to be angry at, its the lawyer who should have proved Billy's guilt.

Dangerous ground you are standing on. Using facts to point out flaws in the outrage.

Are you suggesting the use of a shoulder to tackle or stop an attacking player be banned? If so they already have a game called “touch” that might fit the bill.

I agree Wayne that the game has some major problems. But a root cause analysis on this one shows the problem started many years ago. Nick Tedeschi from the Guardian sums it up very well: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2018/sep/26/billy-slater-judiciary-farce-proof-of-nrl-knee-jerk-rulings

There is a lot of similarities between Tapine's hit and Slater's. But they are not identical. Contextually, Slater was stopping a try, Tapine was shutting down a play that was taking place 60m from the tryline. Feki had ball in hand, Dufty had just kicked. I don't think Tapine was massively late, but he had a lot more opportunity to throw his arms around Dufty than Slater had. Tapine's probably also looked worse because it was big man putting slightly late hit on the littlest man on the park. I'm not saying Tapine should have been pinged, but a) he pleaded guilty, and b) he got two weeks instead of one because of his bad prior record. League is all about context.

I couldn't care less either way really, but now it's Feki's fault. Ha ha. That's the best. The bloke with the ball is under no obligation to suit the tackler. This is Saudi Arabian justice where they blame the woman for getting raped. It's hilarious.

got a link for that judgement? the article above just claims it was accidental contact.

my reading is that it was argued that contact was accidental, not that it didnt use the shoulder.

Actually both Billy and Cam Smith questioned the penalty on the field and they both said so in the after match presser.