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Eels in the media

Tooooks

Bench
Messages
3,242
Kent reckons Marata should have been charged and suspended for breaking Brandon Smiths jaw...
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The worry of involving only ex-players, and not somebody with a deeper understanding of the rules, revealed itself again this week when Parramatta’s Marata Niukore escaped suspension for breaking Brandon Smith’s jaw.

Match review co-ordinator Michael Robertson said the committee judged it a “front on, ball-and-all tackle” and that the injuries sustained were irrelevant to the lack of charge.

“We can elevate a charge based on injuries but we can’t charge on injuries itself,” he said, which is fair enough.

But it overlooked the most crucial aspect of the tackle.

It broke Smith’s jaw.

Too often the players err on the side of the players, at the omission of the rules.

If fracturing a jaw when the tackler’s shoulder comes into contact with the face of the ballrunner is not the definition of a “careless” high tackle, it is hard to imagine what it is.

The committee went through their checklist; no swinging arm, he wasn’t launching the shoulder, and the first point of contact, they believed, was simultaneous between shoulder and chest.

The ex-players applied all the logic of ex-players but missed the most vital part: Niukore’s shoulder came into contact with Smith’s face.

His head recoiled on impact and his jaw was broken and needed repair to the point Smith is now having dinner through a straw.

The damage speaks for itself.

It should not matter, in the case of a careless charge, whether contact was simultaneous.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/s...s/news-story/7a49e82d723a9a98ec87dea7b1c97adb

He’s not wrong. Imagine if Marata’s jaw was broken when he was shoulder charged in the face. We’d all be livid.
 

T.S Quint

Coach
Messages
14,679
they said on NRL360 (ie that show we all whinge about, but watch constantly), that some dude from the MRC said that tackle was the most thought about incident from the weekend ... but in the end they found that - there was arm separation so not a shoulder charge, no swinging arm, unclear if first contact was chest or shoulder

Personally, I think they then decided to whack Niukore with a crusher to some way make up for not charging him over that one

The fact that he wasn’t charged, NAS only escaped with a small fine and the Melbourne guys weren’t even cited for their crushers makes it seem like they are not taking head injuries as seriously as they should. It’s actually at the point where it’s the players staying down I’m after the tackle who are copping the abuse rather than the offenders themselves, which just seems wrong.

The Storm should also be in trouble for letting a player play on for two tackles after clearly being concussed (I can’t remember which player it was). The trains we came out, said “Nah, he’s right” but then stopped the play two tackles later, which killed all of our momentum.
 

Poupou Escobar

Post Whore
Messages
91,995
they said on NRL360 (ie that show we all whinge about, but watch constantly), that some dude from the MRC said that tackle was the most thought about incident from the weekend ... but in the end they found that - there was arm separation so not a shoulder charge, no swinging arm, unclear if first contact was chest or shoulder

Personally, I think they then decided to whack Niukore with a crusher to some way make up for not charging him over that one
I think they probably saw it as neither intentional nor careless, much like how a head clash isn't illegal (except when it's Napa doing it intentionally) but can do a lot of damage.
 

84 Baby

Referee
Messages
29,883
I reckon on the 2 high tackle instances, Marata’s was fineworthy and NAS should’ve got the suspension. One was lazy with a bit of bad luck for Bmith, the other was malicious and there was nothing Marata could do to protect himself. Even Gus said at the time we should get angry about it. You don’t get angry over a fair hit
 

Delboy

First Grade
Messages
7,611
Looked at the so called crusher that Nikore got charged on, was innocuous and probably less harmful than the Storm ones that were on report and escaped punishment.

Asofa Solamona was deliberate and dangerous and really strange it was a fine, no doubt Bellyaches rant was helpful. Pretty much Nikore got charged because they couldn’t find anything on the Smith tackle to fault him, and crushers are subjective. Storm are gifted at influencing the officials, upset they didn’t get anything in the game ( from the stands they were lucky to get away with heaps), without Cams reffing they were treated without favour, so Bellyache let rip to ensure next game it returns to normal.

Frustrating that the media hacks use the game to attack Parra, but really not unexpected, they will suck up Broncos and Storm given News Ltd interest and normal service will be resumed.
 

Obscene Assassin

First Grade
Messages
6,392
I reckon on the 2 high tackle instances, Marata’s was fineworthy and NAS should’ve got the suspension. One was lazy with a bit of bad luck for Bmith, the other was malicious and there was nothing Marata could do to protect himself. Even Gus said at the time we should get angry about it. You don’t get angry over a fair hit

Christian Welch can consider himself lucky, with NAS trying to take off Marata's head his high shot on Marata (in the same tackle) has gone completely unnoticed. Deserved a penalty and to go on report and a fine.
 

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