The most contentious challenge within the sport has reared its ugly head for the primary time throughout Magic Round with Warriors gun Jackson Ford being despatched to the sin bin for a hip-drop deal with.
Panthers prop Spencer Leniu charged the ball into the road and virtually broke via the Warriors’ defence within the second half.
Ford then slipped behind his opponent and landed on Leniu’s legs inflicting the Panthers enforcer to scream out in ache earlier than he left the sphere.
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“We haven’t seen any hip-drop drama at Magic Round, Leniu just grimacing in pain here,” commentator Warren Smith stated.
“It’s that action of just pulling down onto the back of the legs, it is difficult isn’t it.”
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Referee Todd Smith known as the Warriors backrower out of the road and raised ten fingers, giving Ford his marching orders after a Bunker evaluation.
“You rotate the hips and land on the legs, it’s on report and you’re in the bin,” referee Todd Smith stated.
“He was in a good position there Jackson Ford, but he did choose to spin the body and use his side to come down on the legs,” Warren Smith stated.
Warriors coach Andrew Webster was requested in regards to the incident after the sport and conceded “they’re tough at the moment” and added that he wanted to have a look at the deal with once more.
But Webster burdened that the harmful deal with will not be practiced at coaching — the truth is it’s a coach’s “worst nightmare.”
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“The biggest fear of a coach is losing a player at training because someone is careless against each other,” Wesbter stated.
“When we go opposed 13 vs 13, there’s so many opportunities… and you feel like people think coaches in the NRL practice hip drop — it’s actually your worst nightmare.
“For however long I can remember, the last four or five years, there’s been a duty of care by the players at training towards each other not to do it — so we’re actually practicing good habits.
“When you get into a game, a contest and they poke their nose through your line, you get concerned — do you let them go or try to take them down.
“Sometimes… I don’t know the answer. But for a long time now it’s been practiced that you don’t do that at training.
Hip-drop tackles have been the subject of debate across the opening 10 rounds of the 2023 season with several players receiving bans.
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Broncos duo Ezra Mam and Payne Haas were handed one-game bans for hip-drop tackles in Round 8, while Dale Finucane was slapped with a three-game suspension earlier in the season.
Speaking ahead of Magic Round, NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo denied suggestions another crackdown was on the cards.
However, he made it clear — players will be penalised for hip-drop tackles.
In 2021, the NRL put the focus on high contact during the three-day festival of football which saw 14 players sent to the sin bin.
“Let me make it really clear, if you grab rotate or drop, you are going to be penalised on the field and you are going to be penalised by the Match Review Committee,” Abdo stated.
“We have made that clear to the players and to the clubs and it is up to them to adjust, it presents an unacceptable risk.
“We have seen players miss weeks and weeks from it, it is not legal.”
Source: www.foxsports.com.au