Two hip drops, two very different results: NRL’s inconsistency leaves it open to criticism

When Phoenix Crossland’s hip-drop tackle broke Nathan Cleary’s leg, Penrith’s season and, frankly, the prospects of the best team winning the 2026 premiership, the obvious question was how this tackle differed from Victor Radley’s hip-drop on Herbie Farnworth on Friday night, which earned nothing more than a penalty.

The different consequences played a large part in the rulings of the league, which considers injuries suffered by the recipients of foul play as an aggravating factor when determining the grading.

Last year, Nicho Hynes had a hip drop charge downgraded after Canterbury’s doctor advised the NRL that the injury suffered by Marcelo Montoya in the tackle was not as bad as first feared. The league amended the charge from a grade 2 to a grade 1, freeing Hynes to play in the sudden-death final against the Roosters.

It’s an approach that has sparked plenty of debate, and leaves the NRL in danger of snookering itself via the inconsistency in sanctions for very similar offences – while also delivering more fuel for the conspiracy theorists who think the Roosters benefit from favouritism.

Plane speaking

Speaking of conspiracy theories, it was Jarryd Hayne, of all people, who asked on social media if a salary cap was meant to fix the entrenched inequality between the NRL’s haves and have-nots.

Newcastle’s fabulous run to the grand final has been a giant gift to the league, showing that a team can rise from the bottom to the top in one year.

Is it proof that the salary cap works, or the exception to the rule? I don’t know, but if we’ve got to the point where Jarryd Hayne is the voice of wisdom, then the league has a problem.

Heads on the line

The Roosters’ publicity about putting player welfare first is being tested on the Connor Watson case. On Friday, Watson was concussed. The Roosters’ staff said it was a Category 2 concussion.

The independent doctor overruled them and upgraded it to a Category 1, triggering the mandatory 11-day stand-down and ruling Watson out of the grand final. The Roosters have indicated they will contest this.

Of course a club is keen to have its best players available. But given the Roosters’ history with putting concussion-prone players on the field – Boyd Cordner, Jake Friend and Luke Keary spring to mind – the move is fraught with long-term risk. What, really, is important, a football game or the rest of a player’s life?

Blunder Tones

Personally, I was fine with Peter V’landys’ decision to can the pre-grand final entertainment, but when you see what Kylie Minogue provided for the AFL on Saturday, you sense that this is going to be one of those times when the NRL accepts defeat and goes back to a big pop act next year. When it comes to other musical contributions before the match, however, can we do something about the singing of the national anthem?

The AFL had Michael Paynter do a version which showed off Michael’s vocal ability to produce various warbles, descants, arpeggios, pauses and dramatic twists. That’s good for the singer but not for the players and fans trying to keep up. Some Fremantle and Brisbane players simply gave up trying to go with the singer, as did many in the crowd. It happens all the time in Australian sport, and Paynter was far from the worst offender when it comes to going rogue with the anthem.

The singer needs to be told, ‘This isn’t about you, it’s about getting the anthem sung and done’ (we won’t get started on why the anthem is sung anyway, when this is not an international event). If “Pot Plants” V’landys decided to save money on that, too, and put on a standard recorded version over the PA, there would be few complaints. If the anthem has to be sung, best that it’s sung by everyone in the same time signature.

Bunker cloud over decider

The margin of the Roosters’ defeat of the Dolphins on Friday took attention away from the two most obvious Bunker howlers, where suddenly the sideline became in instead of out.

They went both ways and had no effect on the result, with the Roosters deserving their comfortable win. This season has been played under a peculiar cloud of dread, that a refereeing snafu will decide the grand final. What happened to Canberra in the 2019 grand final remains an asterisk beside the Roosters’ win that year. It would be best for everyone if the grand final is a one-sided blowout with lots of six-agains and the game over by half-time, and save us from an off-season rankled by complaint.

Penrith talent factory never stronger

A final sign-off on Penrith’s season. Not only does their production line keep coming up with juniors to fill their own gaps, not only does their diaspora bolster clubs like the Bulldogs, Tigers and the Chiefs, but Penrith juniors like Isaiya Katoa and Francis Manuleleua are the biggest emerging stars at the Dolphins and Knights, who nabbed them young. Penrith won the NSW Cup and Jersey Flegg competitions on the weekend.

If the NRL put a new franchise in its richest soil, it would plant another flag in western Sydney. If the league’s expansion plan is to create new teams in far-flung places and export western Sydney footballers to them, then it’s not really expansion, it’s just window-dressing. The true expansion challenge is to turn those places into new rugby league nurseries, little Penriths everywhere.

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