NSW halfback Nathan Cleary was less than impressed by the way officials reacted to Queensland forward Jai Arrow’s treatment of a concussed James Tedesco.
Arrow apologised following Queensland’s nail-biting game three State of Origin triumph at Suncorp Stadium after he picked up and then dropped Tedesco when the NSW captain was knocked out in the first half.
Blues coach Brad Fittler said Arrow had shown a lack of respect to Tedesco, who was left flat on his stomach after collecting the knee of Josh Papalii on a kick return.
While Arrow insisted he was unaware Tedesco was concussed and immediately sought help when he realised how injured the Blues’ fullback was, Cleary felt referee Gerard Sutton should have intervened.
“I kind of brought it up to the ref after it. I was like, ‘that’s not really on’, especially when the guy’s knocked out cold on the ground,” Cleary said.
“I’m not the ref but I thought he could have at least looked into it.”
The Blues would go on to lose five-eighth Cody Walker to another head knock in the second half.
Despite that, however, NSW mounted a late comeback and came close to forcing the match into extra-time in the dying minutes.
While disappointed to come out on the losing side, Cleary said he was proud of how a patched-up Blues – which included his Penrith teammate Isaah Yeo playing three-quarters of the game in the centres – had almost snatched an unlikely win on enemy soil.
“It’s pretty hard losing two people in your spine, especially players like that,” Cleary said.
“Both absolute freaks, give really good X-factor for the end of the game and we ended up with two backrowers playing in the centres.
“Out of that, we can be proud that we were in it ’til the end but just something we probably could’ve dealt with a little bit better.”
Kent Dorfman
Roar Rookie
you fk a one goat!
U
Roar Rookie
One incident that happens quite often makes him a grub?
Bill
Guest
He clearly didn’t see that he was knocked out, he didn’t see the knee and was just being aggressive in the tackle. Clearly a bad look, but in the context of the moment forgivable. As soon as he knew, he called to stop play. This is all nothing news. NSW sour grapes.
U
Roar Rookie
It’s a pretty routine action. If he wasn’t concussed, you’d never hear about it again. It’s also getting a lot of volume because of the Blues losing
Peter
Guest
Sorry, I owe you an apology. Can’t work out how to remove my first comment.
Peter
Guest
If we trawl through a few seasons’ worth of similar actions, will you condemn all of those with the same strength?
Peter
Guest
It shouldn’t have happened, but hardly “Smashed him back into the ground.”. “Smashed into the ground” is the way players jump-bellyflop onto the back, neck, head of a player on the ground when the tackle has already been completed. It all needs to be rubbed out.
Rugbyrah
Roar Rookie
In rugby league you are allowed to 1: make head high tackles, 2: slam players heads into the ground, and 3. slow play down and interfere if you already have a player in the sin bin. That is in addition to not being allowed to push or contest a scrum and being allowed to feed the ball to the lock in a scrum
Plastered Plasterer
Guest
Arrow has stated he is not a “grubby player”. The evidence would suggest otherwise.
Noosa Duck
Roar Rookie
The one on Munster was bad but it was at least in an attempted tackle but should have been penalised The difference was with Tedesco the tackle was completed the ball lost when Arrow smashed him back into the ground and if Arrow could not tell he was out cold then he should not be playing the game.
Larry1950
Guest
Jeez TJ, the only illegal play in the Tedesco play was him headbutting Papali’s knee, unlike the head slam on Munster the week before. If the blues didn’t like over the top reactions to big hits they might have had a word to Josh Addo-Carr who was pushing & shoving in both games 2 & 3 after an ordinary effort in game 1. You reap what you sow.
TJ
Guest
Surprised the NSW forwards didn't go after Arrow more to be honest. Always been a fan of Arrow but have lost all respect for him after last night. Picking up a defenseless guy off the floor and slamming his head on the ground doesn't make you tough, it makes you a coward. It was a terrible look for the game and goes to show that the NRL really don't care all that much about concussion. They can harp on all they like about player safety but two weeks in a row now they have had players concussed due to illegal contact and have done absolutely nothing about it.