Penrith’s chances of turning their season around have taken a heavy hit with Kiwi forward Scott Sorensen banned for 2-3 matches for a shoulder charge in Saturday night’s loss to Manly.
Sorensen whacked opposing forward Nathan Brown with a deliberate hit from a kick restart that saw him sin-binned.
He will be out for the next two rounds or potentially three games if he risks challenging the grade-two offence at the judiciary.
However, both the sin-bin and the subsequent suspension have proved controversial, with former great Andrew Johns questioning what Sorensen was meant to do.
“Nathan Brown is about 100 kilos, coming off the back fence,” Johns said on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.
“He’s [Sorensen] charged with a shoulder charge and direct contact with the head – we need to know what he can do.
“If he puts his arms out to make a conventional tackle, his head is going to be exposed, and he’ll probably dislocate his shoulders.
“They want players to defend low – if Scott Sorensen goes low on Nathan Brown, he’s going to knock himself cold as a spud.
“He has to brace, and he has to get himself into space – once again, if he drops, Nathan Brown, 100 kilos coming at 30 kilometres per hour, he is going to knock himself as cold as a spud, and if not do some serious damage to his neck.
“I have no idea what the NRL want this tackle to be, and I think they have to come out tomorrow with this and explain what tackle they want to be in this situation.
“For that to get two weeks is absolutely farcical. The breakdown of this, sending players to the bin, is absolutely farcical. It’s gone beyond a joke. It’s embarrassing.”
Fellow host Brad Fittler agreed, saying Sorensen was only ‘defending himself’.
“He’s coming up in a line and he’s got no other option than to stand there and do what he does, or he can move out of the road and let him [Brown] through,” Fittler said.
“At the moment, we’ve forgotten about intention, we’ve gone that real black and white again, which I think is very dangerous in our game.”
In some rare good news for the beleaguered premiers, fullback Dylan Edwards ($750 for tripping) and utility back Casey McLean ($100-$1500 for a high tackle) have avoided a ban despite being charged and co-captain Isaah Yeo was not pinged despite being placed on report for a hit on Tom Trbojevic.
Sea Eagles prop Siua Taukeiaho, who was also sin-binned in his team’s 26-10 triumph, was fined $1000-$1500 for a high shot on Isaiah Papali’i.
Titans front-rower Jaimin Jolliffe is also looking at a ban of 2-3 weeks for a grade-two careless high tackle on Cowboys forward John Bateman while teammate Brock Gray can avoid a suspension with a $3000 fine. Because he is not part of the team’s top-30 roster, his two-match ban has been reduced to one.
North Queensland forward Griffin Neame ($1000-$1500 for a high shot) was also fined.
Latrell Mitchell has received another suspension for the high shot that led to him being sin-binned in South Sydney’s Anzac Day loss to the Melbourne Storm.
Mitchell collected Storm young gun Sua Fa’alogo high with an attempted tackle and was hit with a grade-two dangerous contact charge by the match review committee, triggering a two-match ban that can be reduced to one with an early plea.
Since March 30 last year, Mitchell has been charged five previous times by the match review committee, missing three games and paying $7800 in fines as well as seven per cent of his match fee for State of Origin II.
The famously media-averse Mitchell withdrew from the post match press conference following his latest shot in the Rabbitohs’ loss, despite serving as stand-in captain.
This latest ban is a huge blow for an undermanned team already missing Cody Walker, Jamie Humphreys and Cameron Murray.
He had received unlikely support from Storm coach Craig Bellamy and five-eighth Cameron Munster for the incident. The 20cm difference in height between the towering Sydneysider and Fa’alago also didn’t help.
“I just think in the game now, there’s a lot of, when people get hit high, they’re dropping,” Bellamy said. “I don’t know whether … sometimes, you can’t control that.
“I know it’s a dangerous place to go to pick ones out that you think could or couldn’t have controlled it, so I don’t think anyone’s going to go there, but I don’t think there was too much malice in it. But I only had a quick look at it.”
Munster, who captained the side with regular skipper Harry Grant out injured, felt it was difficult for Mitchell to avoid the Storm player. “I know we’re trying to protect a lot of players with obviously the head knocks and stuff but I’m probably on the side of Craig.
“It’s slippery out there, it’s wet, force on force, a lot of speed. Sua’s very quick, Latrell’s very big and I don’t know where you want Latrell to go there.
“Sua’s obviously trying to engage him to be able to pass and he slipped over so I feel like sometimes it’s hard to get yourself out of those positions when you’re fully in and into the contact. There was not a whole heap of malice by the look of it.
“”I know where the game’s trying to go and protect a lot of players and as long as we keep it consistently around the game, I don’t have a problem with it at all.”
Roosters five-eighth Sandon Smith, Warriors forward Marata Niukore and Knights prop Leo Thompson are facing fines ranging from $1000-$1800 for careless high tackles earlier on Anzac Day.
Canterbury are counting the cost of their Thursday night loss to the Brisbane Broncos, with three players receiving suspensions out of a chaotic evening at Suncorp Stadium.
A trio of Bulldogs – Josh Curran, Sitili Tupouniua and Marcelo Montoya – were sent to the sin bin during the club’s streak-ending 42-18 loss; while several others were lucky to escape the same fate.
Curran was marched in the 10th minute after a high shoulder to the head of Payne Haas.
Making matters worse, Tupouniua was then sent for 10 with the score at 34-0 late in the first half, after high contact on Brendan Piakura.
Montoya was unluckier, sin-binned in a controversial second half incident in which Piakura fell into his shoulder after a Viliame Kikau tackle.
Things could have been even worse, with Matt Burton staying on the field after a high hit on Billy Walters late in the first half that would have reduced the Bulldogs to 11 men; while Tupouniua was extremely fortunate to avoid being sin-binned for a second time after a raised knee collected Piakura during a tackle.
Broncos captain Adam Reynolds was heard on the referee mic insisting to Gerard Sutton that Tupouniua be sent off.
“That’s a send-off, mate – what’s the game come to?” he said. “We give a little bump … and it’s 10 in the bin.”
The Dogs have paid a heavy price for the night of ill discipline, with a combined 13 weeks’ suspension doled out to Curran, Tupouniua and Burton for their acts.
Burton was hit with a Grade 2 careless high tackle charge to earn a two-week ban that he can have downgraded to one with an early plea, while Curran received a hefty four-match sanction that can be reduced to three for his Grade 2 shoulder charge.
Tupouniua was hardest hit, copping two suspensions for his twin acts – a four-game ban that can come down to three for his shoulder charge, and a three-game sanction down to two for his high knee in Piakura.
All up, he will spend at least five weeks on the sidelines unless the Bulldogs can successfully challenge one or both of his bans.
Montoya was the only sin-binned Bulldog spared. Dogs coach Cameron Ciraldo lamented his side’s ill discipline, describing the frequent sin-binnings as a “ball-ache”.
“It was a comedy of errors but we will walk away with plenty of lessons,” he said. “Number one, we are not good enough to be beaten at the laws of the game like that.
“Number two, we are not good enough to play as individuals. We played as a team in the second half and started to look like the Bulldogs again.
Broncos celebrate Xavier Willison’s try. (Photo by Albert Perez/Getty Images)
“Number three, we never give up … we attacked the second half and scored 18 points.
“I am really proud of the second half and filthy at the first half.”
“We’ve been pretty disciplined so we’ll fix that pretty quickly.”
Bailey Hayward looks set to replace Burton in the halves for the Bulldogs’ Magic Round clash with Gold Coast, while Daniel Suluka-Fifita and Kurtis Morrin appear leading candidates to join the forward pack.
Burton should return for the ensuing tough road trip to Canberra, while Curran is on track to return against the Sydney Roosters in round 11.
with AAP
