I agree that I think Cleary got lucky; but comparing to the Dragons situation:
- yes Cleary had more control. That is a good thing in this situation. And while it looked awkward (and probably more awkward than the Dragons tackle) as it occurred in slow motion, that control meant less force on the leg. Contributing factor to Walters getting up and playing the ball versus Dunster having a season of rehab?
- this is Cleary’s first tackle if this nature; he’s not a serial offender.
Serial offences don’t count this year as the judiciary re-set all priors before round 1, so no prior loading, which means the Dragons one has been judged as worth 5 more weeks - that just isn’t right.
For me, having more control actually makes it worse as it brings intent more to the fore - I don’t believe he was trying to injure, he was simply making the tackle in the only way he could given body positions, but that meant carrying out a dangerous technique. He hasn’t considered that by continuing it was dangerous (I don’t believe players often do, they’re just making a tackle in a split second and don’t really have time to think about potential consequences), so whilst he’s not deployed the dangerous tackle to cause injury, he’s deployed it to finish a tackle, without consideration of the danger - which lands it as careless, potentially reckless. He didn’t end up in that position ‘by accident’ which is what grade 1 should be - it was deliberate, and his immediate reaction on the ground when he realised showed that IMO, at the moment, he realised what he’d done and thought ‘shit, what have I done’
