CRICHTON EXPOSES NRL’S MATCH REVIEW ‘LOTTERY’
No wonder so many fans get so disillusioned at the lottery that is the NRL’s match review system.
How in the hell do we make sense of what constitutes a suspension and what doesn’t these days in the wake of Stephen Crichton escaping a ban for dangerously leading with his knees to stop a try against the Dragons.
Yet a week earlier two Canberra Raiders were banned for far less dangerous incidents.
Just to refresh our memories, Joe Tapine was not only sin binned in Vegas but copped two games for his shoulder charge on Mitch Barnett (despite there being no head contact whatsoever).
Xavier Savage was also suspended for a match for kick charge pressure on Chanel Harris-Tavita where there was only minor contact on the leg.
But Crichton was slapped with a lettuce leaf when copping an $1,800 fine for collecting the head of Dragons winger Christian Tuipulotu in an incident that was ultimately judged a penalty try.
Crichton gets SPRAYED after penalty try | 00:50
The Bulldogs will argue there was no intent in what Crichton did.
But the fact is Crichton did a very similar tackle in their recent trial loss to the Broncos when he came in late on Jesse Arthars.
I thought at the time it warranted more attention given Crichton’s second effort with his knee.
Then to escape with no suspension this time is even more bewildering.
The Bulldogs Jacob Preston also escaped with a $1,000 fine for whacking Valentine Holmes off the ball.
Raiders fans have a right to be filthy they won’t get to see Tapine and Savage play against the Broncos this round.
FORWARD PASS CONTROVERSY ROBS DRAGONS
The Dragons have a right to be blowing up about two contentious passes that led to Dogs’ tries in the 28-20 defeat.
There is no argument the Dogs were the more dominant team.
But those two tries were ultimately still the difference in the scoreline.
The one from Kurt Mann to Sitili Tupouniua was dead set forward from where I was sitting, while there was also a huge question mark hanging over the pass from Connor Tracey that Blake Wilson scored off.
You’d love to see the NRL at least allow the Bunker to make a judgement in try scoring situations without a referee’s bias influencing the decision.
Graham Annesley always says the ref and the touchies have the best view on the field.
But with the speed of the game that is not always the case.
And it is ridiculous to bury your head in the sand and argue how modern technology couldn’t do a more consistent job given the amount of TV cameras that monitor every game.
How ref blunders burned Dragons and exposed NRL farce; Ryles call that could haunt Eels — Crawls
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