Wests Tigers bosses will decide in coming days whether to appeal last month’s controversial loss to North Queensland after meeting with NRL officials.
Tigers chairman Lee Hagipantelis and CEO Justin Pascoe met with Peter V’landys, Andrew Abdo and Graham Annesley on Thursday, some 11 days after the 27-26 defeat in Townsville.
Inside, the Tigers were told that the last-second escort penalty awarded to the Cowboys was an incorrect decision, however the Tigers’ complaint centres further around the procedural legality of the review after no penalty was called on field and the siren went.
The NRL has long maintained that interpretation is based on the fact the Cowboys were technically challenging play stopping after the fulltime siren, as they believed there had been an illegality on the play.
It’s understood that message was reiterated on Thursday.
“Our argument is that this is a cart before the horse scenario,” Hagipantelis told AAP.
“But it was readily acknowledged by the NRL that there are competing interpretations of the rules.
“It is something they will look at at the end of the season in consultation with the Tigers and the other clubs, to try and bring about some greater clarity.”
(Photo by Ian Hitchcock/Getty Images)
Hagipantelis said the meeting had been robust, but both parties had walked away with a desire to have issue finalised ASAP.
Tigers officials were on Thursday not yet ready to make a decision on whether the result would be challenged, with that call to ultimately come down to a board meeting.
“That’s a matter for the full board. We will report back to them,” Hagipantelis said.
“This can done quite readily. It doesn’t need a formal meeting.
“It’s something all parties are anxious to put to bed one way or another. There is no advantages to anyone to have it linger on longer than is needed.
“I would be hopeful the board will be able to resolve very quickly to where we are going.”
A result has never been overturned in the NRL’s history and no points ever awarded to the losing team.
But the Tigers have pointed to precedence from a kick after the siren in the AFL in 2006.
Albeit incredibly unlikely, an extra two points for the Tigers would all but guarantee they avoid their first wooden spoon with a four-point buffer over Gold Coast.
It would be a heavy setback for the second-placed Cowboys, given they sit two points clear of Cronulla in the fight for a home final in week one.
Brad Fittler says acts like Patrick Harrigan’s “crap” hip-drop tackle on Jackson Hastings have no place in the game and offenders should be rubbed out for far more than one month.
The NRL judiciary suspended Carrigan for four matches after Hastings suffered a fractured fibula and ankle damage in the tackle during Wests Tigers’ 32-18 victory over Brisbane on Saturday night.
While Hastings won’t play again this season, Carrigan will be back a week before the finals and Fittler believes the Broncos lock got off “very lightly”.
“The only way to get rid of those tackles is to suspend the people further,” Fittler told Nine’s Wide World of Sports radio.
“It’s a practised action. It’s about grabbing the hips, putting weight on the knees and ankles and collapsing those joints.
(Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
“And in this particular instance, Jackson Hastings broke his leg.
“So what this kind of tackle is designed to do is collapse the people’s legs underneath them, so I feel like he got off very lightly. It’s a crap tackle.”
Brisbane coach Kevin Walters labelled suggestions NRL players were coached to perform hip-drop tackles like Carrigan’s on Hastings as “nonsense”.
Fittler, though, clearly doesn’t agree with his former Queensland State of Origin coaching counterpart.
“It’s the ones that are practised – (like) the chicken wing – they’re all designed around the joints and putting them into positions that immobilises them and stops their movement,” the Blues mentor said.
“I can understand from a point of view of it’s beneficial to make a tackle, but they’re dangerous. When you’re playing with these parts of their body, for instance on the weekend, you broke a bloke’s leg.
“Maybe every now and again you get caught in that position and sometimes things happen because people are moving in tackles.
“But there’s those ones where they sit behind and pull them down … and obviously it’s been going on for a while because a lot of players do it.
“Patrick Carrigan’s not the only bloke doing it, but I think this should be the last one because the next one should go for longer.”
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Des Hasler says it is time to move on from Manly’s rainbow jersey saga, adamant his playing group are united ahead of the run to the NRL finals.
Friday night’s clash with Parramatta looms as one of the most important of Manly’s season, given the Sea Eagles must win at least four of their last five to make finals.
Manly players met over the weekend to clear the air after last week’s boycott, insistent they had emerged with a greater understanding of each other.
However that still did not stop reports of frustrated messages between players, as well as quotes from a so-called frustrated anonymous player appearing on Nine’s website.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
Regardless, Hasler was steadfast on Thursday that all was well within the Manly camp.
“At the heart of it, where it really is, it’s good,” Hasler said. “It’s the old expression that you can’t control the noise outside. The players have resolved to just get on with it. I think at this stage it’s been explored, it’s been worked. We should just move on now.”
The Manly coach also conceded he did not not know how the players would be received on Friday night, with five of the seven boycotters returning to the field.
He pleaded sympathy for all of the club’s players last week, while Manly are at this stage not taking any extraordinary off-field steps around the match.
“That’s a really hard question to answer,” Hasler said when asked if he hoped fans had also moved on. “Because everybody has individual thoughts about it, and it’s always going to be one of those ones that is speculated and talked about.”
What Hasler does know is Manly need to win.
Undeterred by speculation around his own future for 2024 and beyond, the veteran mentor played down any claim his team would be desperate to make a statement after last week’s dramas.
But with games against Gold Coast, Cronulla, Canberra and Canterbury to follow, Manly must take the points against an Eels side missing Mitch Moses.
Meanwhile Hasler said the call to leave Josh Schuster as 18th man was to allow for extra outside-back coverage on the bench in Ben Trbojevic, with Dylan Walker to come on only in the middle with Sean Keppie and Josh Aloiai injured.
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