Wayne Bennett defended Dolphins lock Max Plath after he was put on report for a hip drop tackle on Gold Coast winger Phil Sami on Saturday night but the match review committee was not so forgiving, dishing out a grade-three charge.
Plath’s tackle was added to in the Easter Monday clash, when Tigers gun rookie Lachlan Galvin was binned, then charged following a hip-drop on Kelma Tuilagi.
The Dolphins won 30-14 but Plath now faces a ban of 2-3 matches after he was sin-binned in the 27th minute of the clash at Robina. Sami received treatment from the Titans trainer but went on to play the rest of the match.
Galvin also copped 2-3 games, with coach Benji Marshall making a direct comparison between the two tackles.
“We just don’t know how it’s going to go with those things,” he said in the Tigers’ post-match presser.
“We saw the Max Plath one where he got a couple of weeks so if that’s anything to go off I don’t think Lachie’s was as bad as that but I didn’t see it closely enough. Hopefully he gets no weeks.”
Plath was distraught after making the tackle on Sami, which he clearly believed was an accident. Bennett threw his support behind the player.
Max Plath is marched. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
On Fox League commentary, Dan Ginnane called it ‘horrific’, while Cooper Cronk focused on the lack of severe injury.
“The only saving grace for young Plath is that Sami stayed out there,” said Cronk. “It will be interesting to see what the judiciary do off the back of this, but that was a bad one.”
“They will have to look at it but it is a difficult area that hip drop,” Bennett said after the match. “Max Plath hasn’t got a dirty bone in his body so it was never intentional. We don’t coach it and we don’t talk about it. We don’t practise anything like that.
“If it has gone wrong, it has gone wrong, and we will have to pay the consequences.”
Titans forward David Fifita, returning from a pectoral tear in his first NRL game of the season, was also put on report for a trip on Dolphins winger Jamayne Isaako late in the match but has not been charged.
Manly five-eighth Luke Brooks ($1000-$1500 for a careless high tackle) and Dragons prop Blake Lawrie ($1800-$2500 for contrary conduct for pulling Josh Aloiai’s hair in a tackle) have been charged from Saturday night’s game in Wollongong.
Confusion over what constitutes a hip drop is again flaring after South Sydney star Jack Wighton escaped a ban for a similar tackle during the Rabbitohs’ Good Friday win over the Bulldogs.
Rabbitohs teammate Latrell Mitchell was charged with dangerous contact and faces a fine of $1800-$2500 over his hit on Indigenous All Stars teammate Josh Addo-Carr which sent the Bulldogs winger from the field in the lead-up to half-time.
Canterbury’s Kurtis Morrin was also pinged over a grade-two dangerous throw early in the second half which means he could be outed for two or three matches.
Wighton left Dogs fans incensed after dragging Jacob Preston to ground close to the try-line, with the incident closely scrutinised.
However, NRL head of football Graham Annesley said on Friday he didn’t believe the veteran centre had a case to answer, and so it proved, with Wighton not even cited in the NRL’s list of judiciary charges announced on Saturday.
Bulldogs coach Cameron Ciraldo would not comment specifically on the incident, which forced an error on attack in the first half of the Rabbitohs’ tense 20-16 triumph on Good Friday.
But he made a point to say Preston had finished the game with an ankle injury, but despite being clearly unimpressed with the tackle, he would not discuss the legality of the hit.
Preston was sin-binned in the Good Friday clash last year for a hip-drop, only for the NRL to admit the following day the tackle was fine.
“Oh I remember that well,” Ciraldo said. “I honestly didn’t see today’s that closely.”
Jack Wighton celebrates scoring a try with teammates. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)
Wighton is only two games back after copping a three-game suspension during last year’s finals series for Canberra after being found guilty of biting Knights opponent Tyson Gamble.
In commentary, Andrew Johns suggested the tackle had looked like a hip-drop motion, though replays suggested Wighton did not land on Preston’s leg.
Preston said afterwards he would not require scans on his ankle, and also would not comment on the tackle from Wighton.
“I won’t comment on it. I haven’t seen it yet. That’s footy, mate,” Preston said.
Canterbury fullback Blake Taaffe was also charged and will be a thousand bucks out of pocket for grade-one dangerous contact.
Roosters forward Nat Butcher was charged with a careless high tackle from Thursday night’s loss to Penrith but is only facing a fine of $1000-$1500.
Dualcode
Roar Rookie
Can see why the hip drop is a problem and swiftly punished in league and not so much in union.
Andrew01
Roar Rookie
Yeah - that's what i am thinking re: hip drops. The Plath and Galvin ones are text book and dangerous. Neither were situations where the momentum in the tackle caused by other forces, caused the defender to be in a hip drop situation (which occasionally happens). So we are now saying 2 weeks is the worst you will get for an early guilty plea on a hip drop.
Maxtruck
Roar Rookie
And the late shoulder charge on JAC by Mitchell, Burtons try, let go on field , bunker and match review. ?
Tony
Roar Guru
Mitchell's dangerous contact that ended JAC's game copped the same penalty as Lawrie's innocuous hair pull? They're kidding, right? As for the hip drops, either could have ended the recipients' careers and should have got 4 weeks minimum.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
Bennett was just saying it wasn't intentional , I don't think any of the coaches like the tackle at all. It risks long term injury to key players . I think they all want it gone.
Curly
Roar Rookie
Latrell will be fine. Joey Manu will provide a character reference.
matth
Roar Guru
“ If it has gone wrong, it has gone wrong, and we will have to pay the consequences” I don’t see how this is Wayne Bennett defending his player? All coaches use the “I didn’t see it” response
Nat
Roar Guru
Only one of us is childish enough to make it about the club.
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
But you don't deny it. :laughing:
Nat
Roar Guru
This from the guy who will take any decision to beat the Bulldogs. Souths need every refs call to avoid the spoon.
andyfnq
Roar Rookie
They did mention it. Fifita reported but not charged at present
Short Memory
Roar Rookie
Thanks for sharing that. It does clarify. It's a question of force. I accept that Wighton's tackle didn't result in the required level of force to be deemed a hip drop under the current definition. Though I still have concerns that that was a matter of chance rather than good management. The technique still really worries me. But I am a worrier. (Years of supporting the Tigers will do that to you :laughing: ).
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
‘Appeal to Authority’ is a shaky argument. But the 'authority' is Annerseley and he is responsible for making the call on this. Annerseley made the call, via FOX Sports, during the game. So jimmmy is right.
Glory Bound
Roar Rookie
jimmmy, what Nat means is it's a hip drop until it happens to a key Broncos player like Reynolds, Walsh, Carrigan or Haas.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
Sorry mine was a lazy argument. I should have posted this https://www.sportingnews.com/au/rugby-league/news/what-is-a-hip-drop-tackle-nrl-clarifies/bjmnuia5i9fhdubyc6svzriq You will see forceful contact with the legs is required for a hip drop. Now this is the current state of affairs and it doesn't mean we can't change things but as I said I am yet to be convinced we should.
Short Memory
Roar Rookie
‘Appeal to Authority’ is a shaky argument. Appeal to massively inconsistent authority even shakier. Maybe I am arguing that it should be reclassified – if the current definition specifies that the tackler’s weight has to finish on top of the tackled player’s legs (I don’t know if this is what the definition in current rules and regulations says as I’ve not seen it). Regardless of how the rule is worded atm, I genuinely don’t think Wighton’s tackle was ok. You do. As MR seems to have also. I guess we just have to agree to disagree on this one.
Cadfael
Roar Guru
Wasn't there also a trip in the Dolphins game? No mention at all.
jimmmy
Roar Rookie
SM it's clearly not a hip drop under current rules and interpretations. Match review doesn't think so, Annerseley doesn't think so, Bunker didn't think so and i don't thinks so. Now if you want to talk about whether it should be reclassified as a hip drop that's a whole other discussion. I'm not convinced yet.
Short Memory
Roar Rookie
Never mind that Foxx was already over the touchline.
Short Memory
Roar Rookie
Jimmmy, I agree with Nat. It's a hip drop for two reasons. First, and simplest, is technique - if you grab the hips and drop your weight on or towards the back of he legs it has a high potential to cause injury - like the leg lift or crusher, it's the technique that needs to be eradicated. Second, the tackler's weight can momentarily bear down on the runner's legs without finally landing or ending on top of the leg. If you watch the slow replay of the Wighton tackle, this is what happens - the weight of his hip comes down first on one calf and then the other, and each time bounces / slides off again. But that weight on the leg at that angle even for a fraction of a second, is still dangerous and, very evidently from Preston's reaction, painful. It's just a matter of centimetres and dumb luck that Wighton's tackle didn't end exactly like Plath's.