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
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
Nah it doesn't but think about it , a head high tackle or spear tackle sin binned but not charged is ridiculous. If its not bad enough to charge surely its not bad enough to sin bin.
London Panther
Roar Rookie
Does it have to a charge for a sin-bin. That sounds like one of those ‘accepted facts’ that has crept into the game.
Gus O
Roar Rookie
Are we past fed up with the bunker making incorrect decisions? The whole point of this intrusive, excessively slow decision making process using endless slow motion replays (even for decisions that should be adjudicated at real world speed) is to make correct decisions. This game was one of worst officiated games in living memory, to the point that I switched off the TV. How can the MRC and the bunker and Annersley be so far apart? This game is worth rewatching to record all the missed calls in general play and all the incorrect calls from bunker via replay. Ask yourself how these instances would be called in a SOO match. Ask yourself how they definitively called Coates for not having both feet behind the kicker - seriously. Ask youself how the bunker slid past Cobbo knock on competing in the air in goal, where’s the rock and roll of that footage? On and on. The bunker is a head office imposition, it is their solution and we seem to be stuck with it. For the bunker to have any credibility, the viewing public need to be seeing the same footage that the bunker is looking at. All of it. Every angle they are looking at to make a transparent decision. If rugby league HQ cannot do that then they have no idea, none at all.
Noel
Roar Rookie
Damnable shame is that, absent the charge by the MRC, it was one helluva tackle. I know Olam doesn't have the best hands, but that was some effort by Walsh to put so much into that contact. Dare I say it? An 'Origin' play?
Ferret
Roar Rookie
Totally agree Tetley! I know I'm a dinosaur but sport is meant to flow, and the stop / start nature these days kills momentum and atmosphere. More often that not I get deflated rather than elated.
Luke S
Roar Rookie
Whether it’s the NRL allowing Souths to play the Broncos for a while with 14 on 12 and not docking them 2 competition points, or sending the Broncos captain to the sin bin when the scores were locked to help give 2 competition points to the Storm, you can be sure that the NRL are doing all they can to impede a Qld team from making it to the finals. #nrlqldconspiracy Sorry, my tinfoil hat is on too tight. At least it lets me get my Kayo for free ????
Brisguy51
Roar Rookie
I am fearful that something like this will occur in the SOO series.
Maxtruck
Roar Rookie
Hobbled the Broncos after Origin last year, Having a crack before Origin this year?
steveng
Roar Rookie
Its Carrigan’s bad luck that he landed on the big fella’s ankle and calf and injured him and NAS had to go off, and also it was interpreted as a ‘hip drop’. These side on tackles are so ineffective as they always cause an injury and a hip high tackle is asking for the hip drop interpretation imo! There was no need for Carrigan to go for the hip tackle, as Riki had him up top and if Carrigan would have gone low they both would have made a legit and 100% tackle on NASs. These blokes just don’t know how to tackle anymore, 9 out of 10 times they automatically go for the arms and a shoulder or for the hip and knock themselves out and go off HIA. The most affective tackles on these big fellas like NAS in todays game is one going low and one up top which brings them all down, or even a great low classic tackle will bring a player like NAS down like a sack of potatoes. I thought it was a penalty but not a sin bin, but then again that penalty try wasn’t a try and the last try by Coates was 100% a dead set try.
Tetley
Roar Rookie
For me last night also begged the question: Who, ultimately, is in the best position to adjudicate a game of footy? The on-field ref or the bunker? Time and again we see the bunker stuff up, and I think it’s pretty conclusive that the use of technology is in no way conclusive. Watching something in ultra slow motion 10 times over is not necessarily more revealing than seeing it once it real time. In fact, it can make it even more confusing. So why defer to that decision? I’d argue that the on-field ref has the advantage of experiencing the context of the game better than the bunker. When he got pinged for his “hip drop” Carrigan asked Todd Smith how he saw the tackle but Smith refused to give his take on it – not wanting to contradict the bunker’s ruling. I kind of yearn for our sporting culture of yesteryear when we accepted refs as human beings who occasionally make mistakes (much to our bemusing chagrin of course). To me it’s a lot more palatable than a culture of constantly seeking perfection through technology driven by humans who aren’t there in the moment and who are making maddening mistakes of their own.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
I agree Nat . Of course every now and again one is going to slip through, sin bin without charge or one that is missed and charged later on but every week a guy is binned without charge. It's not good As you say , they seem to have different rule books . Yet the fans ( well most of them ) seem to know the right course of action.
mushi
Roar Guru
So you got the point! The fact the two are so far apart in severity is why Cam Smith isn't the best judge.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
You can be Walsh's lawyer. Walsh's was not a shoulder charge or even close. Olam initiates contact.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
So Carrigan wa sin binned for a nothing . !!! Stop ruining the game.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
Olam initiates contact . Olam! . It's a bs charge. .
Nat
Roar Guru
I wonder if the refs and MRC should jump in a room together one day and introduce each other? These people not being on the same page is causing too many issues in the game.
Nat
Roar Guru
Ridiculous comparison.
Nat
Roar Guru
I certainly hope they fight it. His arms were nearly at right angles leading into contact with no bracing at all. Trouble is if they don’t fight it he will be stuck carrying priors if something does actually go wrong in the future.
langparker
Roar Rookie
So the judiciary has provided guidance to those bunker nufties (who probably never played the game) that a tackle where the shoulder of the tackler slides down the leg of a runner is legitimate, who’d have thought that. I don’t have the access or patience to do it, but can someone identify which bunker refs make these dud decisions & how many so they don’t get a job in September.
Phil
Roar Rookie
I’ve had another look at Billy Slater’s incident on Sosaia Feki in 2018, compared it to Reece Walsh’s hit on Olam and found both to be similar so Walsh must get off as the precedent has been set. Good to see Pat Carrigan cleared of any offence. It’s getting to the stage where the bunker official should be charged for ruining a team’s chances.