From Fox Sports
What’s a send-off or a sin-binning these days? After Round 6, we’re not quite sure.
Three different games, three different outcomes.
The NRL is vowing to crack down on attacks to the head, but it seems the application of the edict is scatter gun at best.
Round 6
Jack Hetherington was dismissed in the Bulldogs’ loss to the Cowboys after he collared Valentine Holmes.
Bulldog coathangers Holmes, gets sent!Bulldog coathangers Holmes, gets sent!0:45
Hetherington will be hit with a charge on Monday morning. He’s just 29 games into his NRL career and has already had six charges, totalling 10 weeks on the sidelines.
The night before, Latrell Mitchell left a stray arm on the chin of David Nofoaluma in an off-the-ball hit. He then lashed out at Luke Garner with his boot.
Mitchell received no punishment on the night and was allowed to remain on the field.
Souths would then go on to beat the Wests Tigers in golden point.
Only due to the intervention of the match-review committee will Mitchell see up to four weeks on the sidelines after he was hit with three separate charges – the final one for another incident involving Garner.
It was ugly and Radley will now miss up to three games. Was it deliberate and premeditated? Hardly. But it begs the question, where is the consistency?
Radley is sent to the bin, Mitchell spent no time off the field – with the bunker failing to intervene – and Hetherington is sent off.
“I don’t think bunker, referee and match-review committee are all on the same page at the moment,” said Fox League commentator Andrew Voss during the Cowboys’ win over the Bulldogs.
“I don’t think we know when there’s a head shot. Do you stay on? Are you sin-binned? Or are you sent off? It’s an absolute roll of the dice and pick an option out of the hat.”
He’s right. Corey Parker made the point on the Big League Wrap that Hetherington’s reputation now precedes him.
“I think it’ll be longer than what he got last year [for a hit on Martin Taupau],” Parker said. “It was dumb stuff. It pulls apart what you’re trying to build… we love the aggression but it’s a fine line. Based on the numbers [of chargers] they’re horrible.”
Latrell Mitchell reported for sloppy hitLatrell Mitchell reported for sloppy hit0:27
While Hetherington had to go watch his side slog out their sixth straight loss of the season from the change rooms, Mitchell was allowed to play on against the Tigers and it left Michael Maguire asking why the bunker failed to interject, saying: “I think ‘Garns’ ended up copping a boot there at one stage, technology in the game can refer to that.”
Mitchell could quite easily have been having an early bath of his own for the Garner and Nofoaluma incidents.
“Let me ask you if that was Jack Hetherington what happens?” Michael Ennis said on the Big League Wrap, referring to Mitchell’s contact with Nofoaluma.
“I thought sin bin. I thought he had an opportunity to pull out of that one Latrell and he still led with the forearm and made contact with the head.
Radley binned for huge coat hangarRadley binned for huge coat hangar0:34
“Now they are trying to stamp that out of the game. Any contact with the head they are trying to stamp out. He is lucky he didn’t connect [with Garner].”
Three different games, three different outcomes. Answers on a postcard, please.