The NRL's high tackle crackdown is back under the spotlight after the match review committee only deemed the hit that saw Brisbane's Kobe Hetherington worthy of a fine.
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Hetherington was marched from the field by referee Chris Sutton in Brisbane's loss to Canberra on Saturday night, after Raiders forward Corey Harawira-Naera fell into his shoulder.
Harawira-Naera had been ankle tapped at the time of the hit and fell forward into Hetherington, lower and quicker than the Broncos forward had expected to meet him.
Despite being sent off, Hetherington was only charged for a grade-one careless high tackle charge by the match review committee on Sunday and can escape with a $1350 fine.
The decision to send Hetherington off was met with stern criticism on Sunday, while Broncos coach Kevin Walters also questioned the decision.
"That's a perfect case of accidents happen in our game," former Brisbane hardman Gorden Tallis told Triple M.
"(The ball carrier) couldn't control where he was going and the guy that is tackling him probably would've hit him in the chest.
"He can't react that quick
"If that bloke doesn't fall over, where does he hit him?
"They got that decision wrong, it's as simple as that. That has never been a send-off."
Further highlighting that the match review committee thought the officials got it wrong was a grade-two careless high tackle charge handed down to Gold Coast captain Kevin Proctor.
Proctor, in contrast, stayed on the field and only put on report for a high shot on the Sydney Roosters' Joey Manu earlier on Saturday.
However his tackle was deemed worse than that of Hetherington's by the review officials, resulting in a one-match ban with an early guilty plea.
The NRL has long said it cannot expect the referees or bunker to be the judge, jury and executioner in real time, and would therefore be relied on to grade tackles on the run.
But the fact a tackle which resulted in a player being sent off was considered not as bad as another that allowed a player to stay on the field will raise eyebrows across the league.
It comes after Roosters coach Trent Robinson claimed on Saturday the decision not to sin bin Proctor was influenced by Manu not staying down.
Robinson had been one of the biggest proponents of the crackdown when it was first introduced but is concerned over the referee taking into account the reaction of the tackled player.
Australian Associated Press
