Does the NRL know what a hip-drop tackle is anymore?
The rugby league community was left utterly bemused on Sunday afternoon when Bulldogs hooker Reed Mahoney was put on a report for an alleged hip-drop tackle on Titans prop Moeaki Fotuaika,
Play was temporarily halted after Fotuaika stayed down in the 27th minute of the Round 12 contest, but replays showed the 25-year-old was simply holding onto his opponent.
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“I’m not sure he did anything wrong there,” Michael Ennis said on Fox League.
However, loud boos echoed around Accor Stadium when Mahoney was put on report and the Titans were awarded a penalty, with the Queenslander throwing his arms up in disgust after the decision was handed down.
“Please, please,” Fox League commentator Andrew Voss moaned.
“Oh, come on, no no.
“Hang on a second, where are we going with this?
“What is it on report for though? It either is or it isn’t.
“We’ve had videos sent to us this week telling us what is a hip-drop.”
Ennis exclaimed: “He’s just holding on.”
The boos didn’t stop when play resumed, with the vocal crowd making their frustration abundantly clear.
“It’s not even worth a penalty,” Voss continued.
“It’s not a grey area anymore. Reed Mahoney is perplexed by it, and so is every single fan here at Accor, and I dare say every viewer watching.”
Moments after the action resumed, Titans captain Tino Fa’asuamaleaui barged into Mahoney with a raised forearm, which made contact with the Bulldogs forward’s face.
Mahoney collapsed onto the deck but immediately returned to his feet, going off for an HIA soon after.
Play was once again halted topped as the Bunker reviewed the footage, but Fa’asuamaleaui was cleared, prompting another round of boos from the agitated Sydney crowd.
“You can’t do that,” Ennis said.
“He raises his forearm straight into the face of Mahoney.
“Just lunges with the forearm into the head of Reed Mahoney, I’m bewildered that wasn’t a penalty.”
Adding insult to injury, Titans second-rower Joe Stimson dived over for the club’s second try of the afternoon in 31st minute, extending Gold Coast’s lead to 14 points.
Mahoney was cleared of concussion during the interval, returning to the field early in the second half.
“Reed Mahoney was put on report for what they’re saying was a hip-drop tackle, but it just wasn’t,” Ennis continued.
“There was nothing wrong with the tackle.”
Voss replied: “If they really believe it’s a hip-drop and they have to believe it to blow a penalty, then he has to be sin-binned in keeping in line with every other player (this season) that has been sin-binned for a hip-drop.
“How does he stay on then if it’s a hip-drop?”
Debate on whether Fa’asuamaleaui deserved a sanction for his high contact on Mahoney continued on Fox League at halftime.
“It was a forearm to the head, he knocked him out,” Penrith legend Greg Alexander said.
“Are you allowed to do that? As a ball carrier?”
Former Queensland representative Corey Parker continued: “You should be able to initiate contact, every front rower in the game initiates contact at some point, it’s not up to Tino to determine where Reed Mahoney is going to put his head.”
Former Bulldogs premiership player Braith Anasta quipped: “He looked him in the eye, Corey.”
Parker responded: “You saw him look him in the eye? That’ll do me.”
Alexander continued: “Every front-rower might lift their arm, but they don’t knock the defender out, which is exactly what happened there.”
Parker queried: “So is the onus on the tackler or the ball carrier? If it’s horizontal and hits him in the head, different story. If it’s perpendicular …
Anasta interjected: “So you can elbow someone in the head?”
Parker replied: “That’s forearm and forearm is very different to an elbow.
“There is initiation of contact between Tino and the defender, you will see every middle forward in the game initiate contact.”
Anasta concluded: “I haven’t seen anything like that for a long time, I haven’t seen a player get concussed from a direct forearm to the head when he’s looking at him directly.
“We’re talk about protecting the head of the player with the ball, what’s any difference if they don’t have the ball?”
The Titans, currently ninth on the NRL ladder with five wins in ten games, held a 14-0 lead at halftime.