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The NRL will only investigate allegations of spitting that sparked a post-game fracas in the Wests Tigers-Manly Sea Eagles game if an official complaint is raised.
Manly rookie Samuela Fainu is reported to have spat at Tigers playmaker Brandon Wakeham late in Sunday’s 22-16 Sea Eagles win.
The incident led to a melee at the time and a heated post-match exchange between Wakeham and Manly prop Josh Aloiai in the tunnel at Campbelltown Stadium.
NRL head of football Graham Annesley said because Wakeham opted against registering a complaint with referee Todd Smith, the match review committee had not explored the incident in forensic detail.
Samuela Fainu on debut for Manly against Wests Tigers. (Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
“There is nothing that they (the Tigers) raised issue with,” Annesley said.
“There was no on-field complaint that was willing to be lodged by any particular player.
“So without evidence, they (the MRC) can’t proceed, they can only proceed if they have some sort of video evidence or it can be an on-field complaint.
“But without either of those elements, there’s not much I can do about that.”
NRL football boss Graham Annesley has rubbished suggestions the game is in the midst of a crackdown on hip-drop tackles, warning head office wouldn’t back down after another weekend in which the technique has dominated headlines.
Annesley claimed League Central made no excuses for their tough stance on the tackle, which is defined by a defender grabbing an opponent, twisting their body and then dropping their weight onto the back of an attacking player’s legs.
But Annesley said the 11 charges dished out before the start of round eight were a result of players’ failure to adapt to an edict handed down in July 2020.
“It’s not a new phenomenon, it’s not a crackdown, it’s been an ongoing campaign of the game to try and eliminate this type of tackle,” Annesley said.
“(Or) at least minimise this type of tackle, to the point where it provides greater safety for players playing the game.”
The Australian Rugby League Commission is expected to meet this week and has the power to review the NRL’s policy on hip-drop tackles, although Annesley was keen for their existing approach to continue.
“We can’t just hurl up the white flag and say ‘gee, we’re not going to be able to get this out of the game so we’re just going to have to let it go’,” Annesley said.
Payne Haas. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
“If I was a player and I was getting injured by something like that then I wouldn’t be very happy about it.”
Annesley said all of the data was “heading in the wrong direction” after another weekend where the tackle polarised debate.
Referee Ashley Klein failed to sanction Brisbane prop Payne Haas after he pulled off a hip-drop tackle on Reagan Campbell-Gillard in the Broncos’ 26-16 win over Parramatta.
Earlier in the game, Klein had sin-binned Eels forward J’Maine Hopgood for a hip-drop tackle.
In the minute before Haas’ tackle, he had also sent Broncos five-eighth Ezra Mam for 10 minutes for the same offence.
Campbell-Gillard is now looking at a lengthy stint on the sideline with a suspected groin injury while Haas was charged by the match review committee and will miss one week due to suspension.
Klein may have missed the tackle in the heat of the moment but the in-action is all the more frustrating for Parramatta because the bunker does have the power to pause play and pull things back.
Annesley hit back at the suggestion that Klein didn’t want to take the difficult decision to reduce Brisbane to 11 men.
“If it requires a player being sent to the sin bin or sent off, the referees have demonstrated over a long period of time that they will do that,” he said.
“They’re not going to wimp out of a decision because (the referees think) ‘I better not put someone else in the sin bin’.”
HIP-DROP TACKLE CHARGES BY SEASON
2020 – 9
2021 – 14
2022 – 22
2023 – 11*
*Rounds one to seven
The NRL is considering the option of kicking off the 2024 season with two matches in Las Vegas as part of an ambitious plan potentially involving the UFC and a boxing world title bout.
After previous attempts to launch a season in recent years with a Round Zero concept in the US were thwarted due to the pandemic and the logistics involved, the NRL is putting the idea back on the agenda.
According to a NewsCorp report, four teams would be chosen to play two games at Vegas a week before the rest of the clubs stage their Round 1 fixtures.
The four clubs involved in the US experiment would then get the following week off after returning home.
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It is a similar idea to the one which was floated previously when Manly and South Sydney were mooted to face off in a Stateside season opener in Los Angeles due to their Hollywood links to the Sea Eagles’ No.1 fan Hugh Jackman and Rabbitohs co-owner Russell Crowe.
Rabbitohs forward Sam Burgess is hugged by club co-owner Russell Crowe after the 2014 NRL Grand Final. (AAP Image/Paul Miller)
The NRL has reportedly asked local broadcasters Channel Nine and Fox Sports about the idea as well as the Fox network in the States.
Manly owner Scott Penn has backed the Vegas idea, along with Storm counterpart Matt Tripp while Souths CEO Blake Solly has consistently said his club is keen to be part of the NRL’s attempts to break into the US market.
The NRL is keen to coincide the weekend with a high-profile UFC or world boxing title bout to encourage Australian fans to travel to Vegas for a multi-sport experience.
Brisbane winger Corey Oates suffered a knee injury that will not only keep him out of Friday night’s clash with South Sydney but sideline him for a month.
The 28-year-old did not train on Monday with his Broncos teammates. He suffered what prop Pat Carrigan said was a posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) injury during Friday night’s 26-16 win over Parramatta in Darwin, but battled on till the end of the match.
Broncos head of performance Dave Ballard said: “No surgery is required, which is a positive, and Oatesy will have at least four weeks of recovery ahead. He always works hard during his rehab periods and we will see him back ready to go before too long.”
It is wretched luck for Oates, who was playing his first game in six weeks after breaking his jaw in the round two clash with North Queensland.
“I feel for him. He has had a tough run,” Carrigan said. “Medically, I think he has done a PCL or hurt something in his knee. He has tweaked it.”
Jesse Arthars will come in on the wing while the competition leaders will also be without prop Payne Haas and No.6 Ezra Mam after both accepted one-match suspensions for hip-drop tackles against the Eels.
Former Wests Tigers playmaker Jock Madden will make his Broncos debut in place of Mam while forward Keenan Palasia is likely to slot into the 17 for Haas.
Carrigan said Madden had learned a lot from captain Adam Reynolds, coach Kevin Walters and assistant coach Allan Langer about halfback play and would perform well in the role.
Corey Oates scores a try. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)
Haas is virtually irreplaceable but Carrigan said he was looking forward to the team rising to the challenge without him.
“Last year we played Souths in Sydney when we didn’t have him and we still got the result,” Carrigan said.
The subject of hip-drop tackles dominated Carrigan’s press conference
He was suspended last year for a third-man-in hip-drop. The game has had more one-on-one variations of the tackle, for which Haas and Mam were suspended. Carrigan said the definition of what constituted a hip-drop remained unclear, and added it was not possible to train for such tackles.
“We are working here to try and not get in those positions and be better when you are under fatigue. It is a tough one,” he said.
“Some are unavoidable. I think the NRL are learning on the run, as much as the players are. Sometimes accidents happen and there probably needs to be a little compromise in that regard … but we don’t want people injured.”
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