My take is that it wasn’t intentional or malicious.
But let’s wind it back, Chan is the decoy, in every play there’s a decoy, they have responsibility to get through line and to not initiate contact.
Crossland is in defensive line, and is sliding, there’s no “defensive decision” to tackle Chan. Chan wipes him out. That’s a penalty.
Same as if Chan is running through and Crossland takes him out without the ball. That’s a penalty to Melbourne.
I don’t think Mooney can make a decoy run, look in the opposite direction and knock out Grant and have the incident go unpunished. (Cue Simpsons meme - I’m gonna swing my arms and it’s your fault if you get in my way).
Pictures have uploaded in a weird order but…
Look at where Chan starts, he’s miles away. On the 40m line, probably a good 10-20m along as well.
The angle of his run - he’s running towards Crossland - straight on. Chan can see what’s unfolding in front of him. Crossland is sliding, but head is facing the left watching the ball.
Impact - Chan able to get his arm up to brace for the contact. It appears it’s the shoulder that contacts Crossland as well. There’s a view from behind. One frame you see Chans head clear the impact, then next frame head goes back.
Anyway. An accident. But lots of tackles ending badly are accidents. I think there’s enough to say, Chan should have done more to avoid contact, and to not avoid the contact is negligent on his behalf.
