Nrl Confident It Can Act Over Blair Tackle
The Age
Monday April 7, 2008
NATIONAL Rugby League chief operating officer Graham Annesley is confident players can be charged and suspended over the controversial new "chicken wing" tackle that has Melbourne Storm prop Adam Blair facing a two-to-three-match ban.
Blair became the first player to be reported over the tackle after he appeared to wrench the arm of Brisbane hooker Michael Ennis during the Storm's 28-8 win in Melbourne on Friday night.There were concerns over the weekend that he could escape further action because of a loophole in the NRL's judicial code. But it is believed that talks between NRL management and representatives of the citings panel and judiciary yesterday confirmed that the match review committee had the power to charge Blair with "contrary conduct".Officials pored over the code just weeks ago before deciding that Roosters hooker Riley Brown had not breached any rule when he shouldered into the back of Souths half-back Craig Wing in the opening round, while the match review committee was also unable to charge Melbourne prop Jeff Lima last year when the first "crusher" tackle was detected.Since then, changes have been made to allow defenders to be charged for making unnecessary contact with the head or neck of an opponent, and the judiciary has been instructed to treat any tackle in which a player uses his body weight to bend and exert pressure on the ball carrier's neck as "very serious".While Annesley said there was no plan for the NRL to give a similar direction to the judiciary over the "chicken wing" tackle, he believed the match review committee already had the authority to act over such incidents. "There doesn't have to be a specific rule that says you can't grab a player's arm. If the match review committee believes something constitutes contrary conduct, they can lay a charge," Annesley said.With the Storm having been placed on notice last week after the NRL emailed a number of examples of "chicken wing" tackles to Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy, the match review committee is expected to charge Blair with either grade two or grade three contrary conduct - paving the way for a potentially explosive hearing if the New Zealand international pleads not guilty.Blair denied that Melbourne players were being coached to perform the controversial manoeuvre and said he hadn't done anything wrong."I didn't deliberately do it," he told The Sunday Age. "It was just all in one motion, it was all just going down to the ground. I was just holding his hand and it just twisted over myself, so there's nothing in it."Indications from Melbourne are that the Storm will contest any charge, and claim that Ennis took a dive after he was seen winking to teammates when referee Jared Maxwell penalised Blair - something the Broncos star and his coach, Wayne Bennett, vehemently deny.Manly players fear the constant sniping at the Storm's tactics will have them even more fired up for Friday's grand-final rematch at Olympic Park. "They've been copping it quite a bit," Manly centre Jamie Lyon said. "I don't think they're the only team that does it. They probably just do it a bit more often. They're going to be fired up, but so are we." -- With GLENN JACKSON
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