There was no change in direction - his shoulder came in direct contact with the putrid head of Bitch Moses.
Some head-knocks cause concussion, others do not. Luckily for Mitch, his facial bones (jaw) did a good job in protecting his brain from knocking against his skull, so he wasn't knocked out. Val's shoulder still came in direct contact with his head and he was rightly binned.
View attachment 77192View attachment 77193View attachment 77194
Nothing in this hit was stopping Val's shoulder from hitting his head - the ball was yeeted into orbit and is an irrelevant factor of this tackle. You can fly from Brisbane to London via Dubai but you'll still hit London.
Our lust for the days of big hits causes us all to get a bit insane over these binnings, but this is how the game is adjudicated now. I'm sure if the roles were reversed, you'd be screaming for the Para player to be binned.
Like Bazal said, Paulo got 4 weeks for the same hit. You got the win, time to move on.