FB post from former Eels player Eric Grothe
Jr
The tackle that broke Nathan Cleary's leg was not a “hip drop” done with intention. It was a random collision. Contact was made, the body swung around the ball carrier, momentum carried him down. That is rugby league. It’s not a crime scene. Should defenders let go of a player they have hold of after initial contact fails in case they’re heading towards the ground, hip/freckle first? Off ya scone.
The sport is being policed largely by people who have never even played it at a level where the fatigue, collision, and the errors in judgement are the texture of the game.
Using body weight to complete a tackle is not intent to harm. Requiring players to disengage mid-tackle to avoid "misdirecting" their weight is not realism. It’s fantasy.
You cannot referee randomness and
you cannot remove fatigue from a contact sport without removing the sport itself.
A send-off was excessive. A penalty, at most. It was bad luck, not malice.
Nathan is a good man and the unfortunate victim however I believe he’d think the same as me on this. I may be wrong.
No one wants to see a player of Cleary's calibre or any player from juniors through to grade go down like that but this does not change the analysis.
‘Hip drop’ is an unfair label given to a last ditch effort and positionally usually the worst case scenario for making a tackle. Nobody wants to miss the initial contact and fall down the side of the ball runner, holding on for life so not to miss the tackle and get blasted during review Monday morning. The alternative is ‘LET GO’ after initial contact doesn’t stick.
Surveilling ordinary collision, slowing it down, and ruling on it as if intent were visible is not justice. It is the slow dismantling of the game by administrators who have never themselves been in the muck.
Shut up and rack off, nerds
Love from the fans
