Souths coach Jason Demetriou has fired up at the recent spate of hip-drop tackles in the NRL, describing the technique as something liable to start a blue in training, let alone a match.
Demetriou was speaking after the Bunnies’ win over the Bulldogs, in which Jacob Preston was binned for a hip-drop on Izaac Thompson that forced the winger from the field and potentially out of next week’s trip to the Dolphins. He avoided a charge for the incident from the Match Review Panel.
“I think there was a few hip-drops,” said the coach. “There was at least four of them in the game. We keep saying that it’s not a problem in the game, but if that tackle happens on a training field, I can guarantee you that the teammates aren’t happy about it. Your own teammates are filthy if you do that.
“I don’t know why if we’re not doing it at training, we’re doing it on the field.
“I get that there’s circumstances where it can be an accident, where there’s some swing in the tackle. I understand that. But when you’re side by side and you’re losing your legs to drop your hips down, it’s not a way to take people to ground. It’s a lazy way.
“We don’t practice it. There’s no way that it would happen at training and I can’t stress that enough. That doesn’t happen at training. Coaches and teammates would not let that happen so I don’t know why we’re accepting that on the field.”
Later in the evening on Channel 9’s coverage, Bulldogs GM Phil Gould fired up at the tackle, describing it as an ‘accident’ and taking aim at the NRL for there ongoing crackdown.
“I saw three blokes suspended last week that shouldn’t have been suspended,” said Gould. “If we keep sending people off the field and suspending them for that, we’re not going to have any players left.
Jacob Preston. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
“I don’t know what they think else could have happened. When they say this is a hip-drop tackle, what else did you want him to do to avoid that?
“That’s just an accident. People get hurt. We can’t punish someone every time someone gets hurt. This is professional football, it’s not tiddlywinks. That is not a hip-drop tackle. It’s not even a penalisable offence, it’s not even a sin bin offence.
“There’s three blokes doing time out of the game from last week that should not be out of the game. They’re not the traditional hip-drop tackles that we want out of the game, that’s not what it looks like. That’s not it.”
Demetriou said the recent directives from the NRL were helping, but teams should do more to police themselves.
“I think the game is doing a great job trying to do what they can,” he said. “It’s up to the clubs to show some onus on it because it’s going to affect your team somewhere. You’re going to lose a high-quality player to a hip-drop, which is a tackle that can be avoided in my opinion.
“It’s a poor habit that creeps in. One of the things we talk about is keeping your feet, keeping your feet in collision for as long as you can so you can have greater control, but sometimes as a player you’ve got to accept that you’re not in a great position.
“But to drop your hips on the back of someone’s legs – look, I don’t think anyone is going out there to do it intentionally and this isn’t me having a crack at anybody in particular or at Canterbury, but as a game we can do a bit more to avoid it.”
Match review committee chairman Luke Patten defended the decision on Saturday by saying it “did not identify the important key indicators of a hip-drop in this incident”.
“The defender will generally have a grip of the opposition player, using that grip to lift or maintain their body weight to then drop or swing their hips in an unnatural way. (Instead), the MRC believed that Preston was attempting a one-on-one steal and fell away from the ball, accidentally landing on the ankle/foot of player Thompson.”
NRL head of football Graeme Anneseley also went into bat for the on-field officials.
“The match officials had to make their decision on the field very quickly, and in this case they did not give sufficient consideration to the attempted ball strip impacting the outcome of the tackle,” he said.
“While the opinion of the match officials in this case conflicted with the opinion of the match review committee, the NRL will continue to support strong action against offenders as and when required in the interests of player safety.”
Souths hooker Damien Cook backed his coach’s view that, even if it happened between teammates, it would be seen as a major incident.
“Sometimes you hear it out on the field but definitely at training, there’s a blow up straight away to get into them,” he said.
“Guys are being competitive and put themselves in the wrong position but we try to recognise it straight away. I’ve no doubt other teams do that as well.
“It’s a such a hard one, because the players are trying to do their job and bring the player down.
Cook backed the current campaign from refs to punish the tackle in the here and now rather than waiting for the Match Review Panel.
“We saw a crackdown in 2021 and it went away,” said the hooker. “It’s starting to come back in again.
(Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
“Things were put in place for concussion and that’s what we need to do with hip-drops because it’s player welfare.
“We’re trying to look after each other out on the field and minimise injuries, because there’s enough injuries and contact in the game as it is. Obviously we’re out there trying to beat each other up and we’re trying to get the win, but nobody is going out there to hurt anyone on purpose.
“We’ve got to bring some light to it I think – I’m not sure how to do that, whether it’s fines or suspensions but the more we shine light on it the more players will be aware of it.”
Train Without A Station
Roar Guru
Exactly right Tetley. Don’t reward wrestling in the tackle, and then be surprised when players wrestle in the tackle.
NQR
Roar Rookie
I’m amused and bemused by the black and white arguments that we have about rugby league. The rules are open to interpretation and grey is probably a more common colour. This is probably why we have passionate debates about the officiating and even how we cope with our team winning or losing a game. As a neutral observer I can see both arguments. Yes it wasn’t intentional but the method of throwing your feet and falling across an opponents leg is a no, no especially if your hips apply force to your opponent lower leg. It’s no different to a player racing in to contact and whacking a bloke in the melon who is falling (Rapana) whilst catching a ball. I saw Dylan Edwards dive in and hit Saab with an elbow to the jaw also? You just have to accept the contact is somewhat illegal and although an accident there is a penalty warranted for it. Anyway rage on. It’s the passion part that keeps us fans engaged.
Choppy Zezers
Roar Rookie
I think Ennis would rather listen to Gus than Ennis. He dribbles more than 100000 teething infants
Dutski
Roar Guru
So has Demetriou walked back any of these comments given it wasn’t a hip drop?
The Barry
Roar Guru
A lot of fans would be well advised to take the time to learn the actual rules before launching onto social media Demetriou as well… no evidence of the “at least four” so called hip drops But apparently he’s more than happy for his players to go the squirrel grip…
The Barry
Roar Guru
Why can’t you judge it by a still shot? One of the defining factors of a hip drop is the defender throwing his weight across the attacking players legs That clearly didn’t happen here and the still shows that There was contact with Thompson’s ankle and it’s unfortunate it happened but it wasn’t a hip drop
The Barry
Roar Guru
But if the tackle doesn’t have two of the three indicators that the NRL used to define a hip drop tackle, how can it be defined as a hip drop?
andrew
Roar Rookie
Hey CZ. Gus makes a lot of valid points at times and i have to admit I like listening to him. Rather listen to Gus than Ennis or Brandy.
Choppy Zezers
Roar Rookie
I dont know what we are talking about Andrew and I havent seen the tackle, but if you're agreeing with Gus then Im disagreeing with you
Rosie
Roar Rookie
The NRL at least corrected their mistake by not charging Preston. It was the wrong call on the day, it reminds me of the crusher tackle, they initially wanted to crack down on the movement where defenders were dropping their weight on the tackled players neck when he was in a vulnerable position. This interpretation got out of control and any contact with the back of the neck was a penalty, they seem to have corrected that this year.
andrew
Roar Rookie
You'll never convince me that tackle was a hip drop Mycall. We'll agree to disagree.
ScouseinOz
Roar Rookie
Agree. It's an accidental hip drop in that Preston went off his feet to bring him down having lost momentum to tackle Thompson whilst on his feet. It's nothing like a Carrigan but still using his weight to pull the player down from above the waist. It's dangerous. The NRL does need to reward a good legs tackle though. Either give the tackler an extra second to get square and allow him to make a second contact if the player wriggles or make that player PTB behind the feet of the tackler. At the minute fans clap that tackle (it's one if the safest tackles as well) and the tackled player gets up quickly and all the momentum is with them for that set. There definitely needs to be something done with the rules.
Mycall
Roar Rookie
Murray's was different, because he never dropped his weight down on the leg. He kept his feet (one foot on the ground taking some of his own weight). If Murray's is eventually also considered a hip drop, then what do you do about any legs tackle where the defender uses any of his own weight to bring down the player? For me, the action to outlaw, is the action of dropping all your weight down whilst pulling the attacker down from anywhere torso up.
Bloke7
Roar Rookie
This whole situation is ridiculous, but the best view is from Luke Keary "“I do that every second tackle. The weight thing is a big one. I do five or six of them a game and it doesn’t affect the big back-rowers because I am 80 kilograms going down the back of them." 19 out of 20 of them are standard tackles and occasionally one gets twisted into a hip drop. Of every one I've seen these last few weeks they all looked accidental and most of the time I didn't realise what the penalty was for until you hear the ref speak. When you think about a lot of one-on-one situations, to tackle any other way would put themselves in danger of concussion instead. So pulling them down is the most effective and safest technique, if you go front on it's concussion territory.
Mycall
Roar Rookie
At the time, it wasn’t considered a hip drop because it was 1 on 1 tackle, but if that happened now, Tatola would be suspended for sure. Hip drop tackles have happened for a long time in 1 on 1 circumstances because often it becomes the only way the defender can get the player down. It is a fairly human nature type of response once you get to a certain position in a 1 on 1 tackle, where you are just hanging on that you leverage your weight. The spotlight on the tackle only came when there were the completely unnecessary and purpose 3rd man in hip drops. Now though, the line is clear, don’t leverage your weight and land on the opponents legs.
Mycall
Roar Rookie
It's not the same as Carrigan's I agree but in every speed, it's still a hip drop when his action is to drop all the weight of his body down to leverage that weight. He wasn't trying to land on Thompson's legs like Carrigan was but when you lose your feet, you no longer have control of where your weight lands. He did not need to lose his feet, as in it wasn't an accident. He could have kept one foot on the ground but whilst he had his feet, he wasn't very effective in tackling him or stealing the ball. That changed when all his weight landed on his foot though.
Mycall
Roar Rookie
I dare say that the indicators will change to cover anything considered dangerous and I don't think Preston was thinking what are the indicators of a hip drop when he was in that tackle. I don't think that he should be suspended, but the NRL should use it as warning to other players to say that this in the future will incur a suspension.
Mycall
Roar Rookie
You can't judge it with a still shot as the how he got to that still shot is important. I don't think that he threw his weight across his legs, but he did purposely drop all his weight down to try to leverage that weight to strip the ball. When you lose your legs and are holding onto a player by the shoulders or the ball, its highly likely that you will land on their legs. Had he kept even one foot on the ground to hold some of his weight, the outcome is different.
andrew
Roar Rookie
That’s NOT a hip drop My call. I actually agree with Gus and JT. Watch the tackle in real time, not super slow motion and you’ll see Preston is trying to strip the ball. It’s not like the hip drop Pat Carrigan was suspended for last year.
souvalis
Roar Rookie
Twitter is hot. Gus reporting no charge for Preston. 13 th min first half Cameron Murray hip drop on JP !!