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Origin candidates Jaydn Su’A and Junior Paulo have been pinged for offences from Saturday night’s games but will be available for state selection.
Su’A was charged with a grade-one careless high tackle from a hit on Murray Taulagi during the Dragons’ 42-22 loss in Townsville and risks a two-match ban if he takes on the judiciary. He will likely cop a $3000 fine to ensure he is available for Queensland selection.
Paulo was charged with dangerous contact for a cannonball tackle on Joseph Tapine in the 29th minute of Parramatta’s 26-18 loss in Canberra.
Raiders forward Corey Horsburgh, who was given 10 in the bin for striking Ryan Matterson, was not punished any further by the match review committee.
Dragons rookie Toby Couchman became the latest player charged with a hip-drop tackle but will only cop a fine of $1000-$15000 due to his clean record.
(Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)
Eels centre Bailey Simonsson was placed on report for a similar tackle during the first half against the Raiders which coach Brad Arthur was fuming about after the match. He has been vindicated with no charge laid against his player.
Hip-drop confusion has been a theme yet again over the weekend with the NRL conceding the bunker was wrong to sin bin Patrick Carrigan during Brisbane’s loss to Melbourne, saying the Broncos prop did not perform a hip-drop tackle.
Carrigan was on Friday cleared of any wrongdoing for his tackle on Storm prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona, meaning he will not be rubbed out of the State of Origin series opener.
But the decision will come as cold comfort to the Broncos, after Carrigan was sin-binned with scores locked at 10-10 in the 52nd minute of Thursday night’s clash.
With Carrigan off the field, Melbourne kicked clear via a penalty goal and then scored a converted try on their way to a 24-16 win.
The NRL’s head of football Graham Annesley confirmed on Friday the match review committee were right to clear Carrigan of foul play, and that the player should not have been binned.
“While there were elements of a hip-drop action in the tackle, the critical component of the bulk of the body weight falling directly on the legs was not present,” Annesley said.
“On that basis, the match review committee has correctly not laid a charge.
“If the bunker had any doubt about the incident, it should have been placed on report and left to the match review committee to determine after the game.”
Carrigan was bemused after the game.
“It felt like he beat me on my outside shoulder and I was just making a tackle. I don’t think I even landed on him but the game’s trying to get it out of the game at the moment. I don’t really think it was a hip-drop. Hopefully he’s alright, the big fella came back on,” he said.
Former NSW captain Paul Gallen said “absolutely not” was the tackle a hip-drop on Channel Nine commentary after the game.
Storm legend Cameron Smith asked “what are we coming to?” as he said it was “almost his armpit” that made contact with Asofa-Solomona. “Seriously?” he wondered with bemusement.
Brisbane coach Kevin Walters thought his side had been harshly treated by the match officials.
“I’m pretty frustrated,” he said. “We came here to play football, that’s what we’ve been doing all year, and I just don’t think that we got a game of football.
“We had three guys sin binned. It’s hard to win when that happens. Were they fair sin binnings? I won’t make any comments because my contract isn’t big enough to pay the fine.”
“He (Carrigan) slid down his legs. You wouldn’t like to see that happen in a Grand Final. For someone to get sin binned for that. What the NRL want you to do now is slide down the legs and Patty did that.”
The Carrigan incident follows two months of confusion around hip-drop tackles.
Three weeks ago the bunker made the call to sin bin Ezra Mam and J’maine Hopgood for hip-drop tackles in Brisbane’s win over Parramatta, but did not bin Payne Haas for a similar challenge.
The following day Haas and Mam were hit with grade-two charges, while Hopgood was given the lesser grade-one charge.
On Good Friday, Canterbury rookie Jacob Preston was sin-binned for a hip-drop tackle by the bunker but was not charged by the match review committee.
The NRL have argued there is no confusion over the indicators for a hip drop, with Annesley regularly showing examples in his weekly briefings to fans and the media.
The football department has also been asked by the ARL Commission to build a library of examples to provide education around the tackle. But Thursday night’s situation does little to help their cause.
Storm coach Craig Bellamy said the NRL were “inconsistent” with their rulings over the tackle.
Brisbane fullback Reece Walsh was the only player charged from Thursday’s game, after avoiding any penalty from the bunker for a shoulder charge on Justin Olam. He can take a $1500 fine.
There were were no charges from Friday night’s matches.
with AAP
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