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Harry Grant has won his landmark fight against one of the NRL’s hot-button issues as the judiciary found the Melbourne captain not guilty of making dangerous contact with Daniel Atkinson’s legs as he kicked.
After an hour-long hearing on Tuesday night, judiciary panellists Tony Puletua and Sean Hampstead took roughly 10 minutes to clear Grant of his grade-one dangerous contact charge.
It means Grant will not have to pay the $1,500 fine he had risked by challenging the charge, increased from the $1,000 offered with an early guilty plea.
The panel found Grant’s contact with the Cronulla five-eighth’s foot carried a risk of injury in that he had been in a vulnerable position kicking the ball just before half-time at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
But the panel felt Grant had not been careless, a prerequisite to finding him guilty, because he had slowed down and altered his line in an attempt to mitigate the risk of contact.
Illegal pressure on kickers’ legs has been a hot topic this NRL season, with Aidan Sezer, Josh Aloiai, Freddy Lussick, Jacob Host and Kitione Kautoga among those charged by the match review committee.
The league’s football boss Graham Annesley denied on Monday referees had been directed to crack down on the move, which sees a defender run through and contact a player’s leg after they kick the ball.
The move can come with serious risk of injury; South Sydney halfback Lachlan Ilias and Penrith’s Brad Schneider have both suffered leg injuries as a result of illegal kick pressure this season, though admittedly both incidents took place in reserve grade.
Grant found himself sin-binned for his contact with Atkinson during the Storm’s 25-18 loss and appeared incredulous as he walked from the field.
The Storm skipper indicated on Monday he would fight the charge and appeared at NRL headquarters via video link on Tuesday night, joined by long-time Storm football boss Frank Ponissi.
The NRL’s counsel Lachlan Gyles suggested Grant had been careless given he collided with Atkinson in a vulnerable position and that a player as “skilful” and “coordinated” as the Queensland representative should have been able to avoid contact entirely.
But Grant’s counsel Nic Ghabar successfully disputed the claims, saying “not even a ballerina” would have been capable of pulling out of applying pressure on the kicker, as Grant was entitled to.
Ghabar used video footage to show Grant had veered to the left to reduce the risk of contact and had slowed down as Atkinson kicked the ball.
Dolphins and Queensland prop Thomas Flegler may not play again this season due to the severity of an injury to his left shoulder, coach Wayne Bennett says.
Bennett confirmed to AAP on Tuesday that fullback Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow would return against Wests Tigers on Sunday after a four-week absence with a hamstring injury but had dire news on rampaging forward Flegler.
“We don’t know with Flegler. He may not play this season,” Bennett told AAP.
“It is a long way from where he is fit enough to play. The injury is very serious. He has had the injury and we all know what the consequences are.”
Bennett confirmed the issue was with nerve damage to the 24-year-old enforcer’s shoulder and reiterated that “he could, absolutely” not play again this year.
Head of performance Jeremy Hickmans told AAP earlier this month that Flegler had sustained the nerve damage after “a bad burner” in the round five clash with Wests Tigers.
“We just have to take time to get his strength back. It is a little bit of a day-by-day or week-by-week proposition,” Hickmans said.
The club has since turned to red-light therapy (RTP), which has been described as “a therapeutic technique that uses low level wavelengths of red light” and can be used to repair muscle tissues.
The loss of Flegler is immense but the Dolphins have received enormous contributions from props Jesse Bromwich, Mark Nicholls and Josh Kerr to be in the top four.
The return of Tabuai-Fidow is a boost but his replacement Trai Fuller announced himself as a player of toughness and flair in his four games filling in for the man known as ‘Hammer’.
“Hammer is our fullback and he will be playing fullback this weekend,” Bennett said.
The coach said Fuller had been “tremendous” but there was no place for him in the 17 against the Tigers.
“But he will be back for us. We have got three games with our Origin players missing and he will have games there,” Bennett said.
“It also means Hammer won’t have to back up from Origin games because we are confident in (Fuller).”
Newcastle could face sanctions over a third-party sponsorship deal in Kalyn Ponga’s contract from 2020 with the NRL investigating the matter after a recent tip-off.
The NRL has recently looked into the matter after the salary cap unit was informed that the Dally M Medal winner was still owed more that $100,000 from a third-party deal from four years ago, as first reported by the Sydney Morning Herald.
An NRL spokesperson has confirmed the salary cap auditors are aware of the potential salary cap breach and are reviewing it but the Knights issued a media statement to say: “All third parties are registered with the NRL. There’s no issue with Kalyn Ponga’s contract and anything to do with third parties remain between the player and his agent to resolve.”
Knights officials and Kalyn’s father, Andre, who has handled his son’s financial affairs throughout his career have been interviewed by the NRL Integrity Unit.
The drama revolves around whether the deal was “at arm’s length” from the club at the time as per NRL rules.
Ponga has since had a new contract lodged with the NRL, a multimillion-dollar deal that runs until the end of 2027.
He is currently sidelined until July with a foot injury but the Knights have managed to win their past three matches since he has been sidelined to keep their finals campaign on track.
While his captain Harry Grant fronts the NRL judiciary, Melbourne prop Christian Welch has called for common sense around sin-bins for contact made with a player’s leg.
The Storm will fight Grant’s grade-one dangerous contact charge on Tuesday night, with the hooker appearing via video link.
Grant was sin-binned just before halftime in Saturday’s match for making seemingly innocuous contact with Cronulla kicker Dan Atkinson during his follow-through.
The 26-year-old was offered a $1000 fine for an early guilty plea but the club decided to challenge the charge.
Often given the Storm job of pressuring rival kickers, Welch questioned how making contact with a leg could be deemed worse than a collision with a player’s head.
Harry Grant is held up. (Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images)
“I understand the logic of protecting those players but maybe a little bit of common sense,” the representative prop said.
“It’s an interesting one when you consider any contact with the kicker is a penalty. But we’re worried about a kicker’s leg.
“Any contact with the head there seems to be a bit of, ‘That’s not a penalty’, or ‘That’s not 10 in the bin’.
“What’s more important to a person, their brain or a foot?
“I think it’s interesting that we don’t have such a focus on head-highs and concussions at a time when we probably should.”
While Welch, a former player-director of the NRL Players’ Union, wanted the head to be sacrosanct, he didn’t want to see rugby league follow rugby union by lowering the tackle height.
“I don’t think so. You look at a lot of concussions these days and it’s players going low and getting a knee to the head or hitting hips,” Welch said.
“It’s probably the safer tackle.”
Welch was also asked about a proposed ban on kick-offs or long restarts, which involve players taking the ball into a collision at speed, to also limit head knocks.
“You don’t mind taking the kick-off carry – it’s a tough one because you know you’re generally getting flogged,” Welch said. “It’s just part of the game and I wouldn’t get rid of it. It’s an exciting way to start the game and it brings fans into it.”
with AAP
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