Souths are understood to be filthy about the lack of consistency from officials.
South Sydney officials are said to be feeling aggrieved after Latrell Mitchell was charged and slapped with a one-game ban for his high shot on Sua Fa’alogo, while Penrith’s Isaah Yeo escaped without punishment for hitting Tom Trbojevic across the nose. Mitchell was sent to the sin for the second half incident that wiped Fa’alogo out for the remainder of the match, and was subsequently hit with a dangerous contact charge by the NRL match review committee.
It means the superstar Souths fullback will be banned for one match and miss Magic Round with an early guilty plea, or cop a two-game suspension if he fights the charge at the NRL judiciary and loses. But as many critics such as NRL legend Cooper Cronk pointed out, they couldn’t see why Latrell was sin-binned and charged, while Panthers co-captain Yeo escaped similar punishment for a high shot on Trbojevic that drew blood from the nose of the Manly fullback.
“We need to nail what is a sin bin and what is not,” Cronk said on Fox League. “Isaah Yeo hit Tom Trbojevic flush across the nose… and yes there’s mitigating circumstances like Sua Fa’alogo and Latrell… (where) Latrell went to the bin. That (the Yeo tackle) is a sin bin in my opinion by the standards that have been set.”
Veteran league journalist Paul Crawley has reported that Souths officials were “privately questioning” why Yeo wasn’t sanctioned in a similar way to Mitchell after describing it as “double standards” from NRL officials. “I understand there was a lot of focus on Latrell’s tackle because it looked so spectacular,” Crawley wrote for Fox League.
“But watch that in real speed and it’s the definition of a rugby league accident. And the wet conditions contributed to this given Fa’alogo clearly slipped in the tackle and was less than a metre off the ground at the moment of impact. Yet Yeo gets off with penalty sufficient. Talk about double standards.”
Even Storm coach Craig Bellamy and Cameron Munster both defended Mitchell over the incident after describing it as an unfortunate accident. “It’s slippery out there, it’s wet, there’a a lot of speed, Sua’s very quick, Latrell’s very big. I don’t know where you want Latrell to go there,” Munster said post-game.
“Sua’s obviously trying to engage him before the pass and he’s slipped over. I feel like sometimes it’s hard to get out of those positions when you’re fully committed to the contact. There wasn’t a heap of malice by the look of it. I know where the game is trying to go by protecting players but as long as we keep it consistent around the game I don’t have a problem with it.”
NRL world slams lack of consistency around high tackles
It’s that lack of consistency from officials that’s no doubt angered Souths the most, with The Sydney Morning Herald reporting that the Rabbitohs were weighing up legal advice about whether or not to challenge Mitchell’s ban at the judiciary. And league legend Andrew Johns was scathing of the crackdown on high contact that saw 18 players sent to the sin bin in round eight, with Yeo surprisingly not one of them.
The breakdown of this sending players to the bin is absolutely farcical,” Johns told Nine’s Sunday Footy Show. “It’s gone beyond a joke. It is embarrassing. The over-analysis and the overreach of the bunker in play … the bunker should be used only for try-scoring opportunities unless it’s a send-off.
“If it’s an out-and-out send-off and they miss it, then fair enough, come in and send the player off. Going back eight plays in a set of six where the referee doesn’t see it, the touch judges don’t see it, the players don’t see it and to send someone to the bin is absolutely farcical.”
Johns’ anger came after Manly’s Siua Taukei’aho and Tigers prop Fonua Pole were both sent to the bin several plays after they were guilty of high shots, following intervention from the bunker. Sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold echoed the criticism of many fans when he said: “I feel like it potentially just needs to be looked at because there’s some tackles that look very similar and some are getting sin-binned, and some aren’t getting sin-binned.”
