Newcastle forward Mitch Barnett breaks silence on ‘shocking’ act

Newcastle forward Mitch Barnett has broken his silence after being sent off during Saturday’s game against the Panthers.

Mitchell Barnett of the Knights. Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images

Newcastle Knights forward Mitch Barnett has broken his silence after being sent off during Saturday afternoon’s NRL game against the Penrith Panthers in Bathurst.

The Knights were leading by two points late in the first half at Carrington Park when Barnett raised a forearm into the head of Panthers second rower Chris Smith, who had been serving as a decoy.

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Referee Peter Gough quickly reprimanded the 27-year-old, sending him off for a “raised forearm” and “direct contact to the head”.

It left Newcastle with just 12 players on the field as Barnett became the first Knight to be sent off since Kade Snowden in 2013.

He was not charged by the match review committee over the incident, referred directly to the judiciary instead.

In an exclusive interview with The Daily Telegraph, Barnett claimed that he did not deliberately attempt to injure Smith.

“The point I want to get across is there is a difference between being deliberate and being careless, and I accept the punishment for careless, but there is no way I went out there to deliberately assault someone,” he said.

“I’ve kept my eyes on the ball and there was a threat of them scoring in the corner so I am going a bit faster than usual.

“Then out of the corner of my eyes I saw Chris Smith at the last second and I braced for contact and tried to push through him at the same time.”

Mitch Barnett was sent off. NRL Imagery

Speaking on Fox League’s NRL 360, News Corp’s Paul Kent defended Barnett by suggesting he was doing a “check and release” on the decoy runner.

Kent also revealed that Barnett would probably plead guilty at the judiciary on Tuesday evening.

“Mitch Barnett has been a bit of a punching bag for the last couple of days … so it’s been a bit of a bash-up on him,” he said on Monday.

“I think he’ll go there tomorrow night and plead guilty but the big the difference is that he wanted people to know it was a careless incident rather than a malicious incident — which is basically what he’s been accused of by everybody.

“Rather than running into Smith and doing the dramatic collapse saying, ‘Sir, look at me I’ve just been taken out,’ he tried to shove Smith out of the way so he could continue over to the edge to defend the player.”

But rugby league journalists James Hooper and Brent Read were unimpressed with Kent’s rebuttal.

“I like Mitch Barnett, he’s a stand-up bloke and he’s the type of bloke that if you’re in a stink you want him on your side … but that’s waffle. It’s a brain snap,” Hooper said.

Read continued: “That’s shocking, that is indefensible. He’s lucky he didn’t shatter his jaw.”

Former Sydney Roosters star and NRL 360 host Braith Anasta laughed off Kent’s remarks, saying he sounded “like an idiot”.

“I don’t support the argument, I think it’s an out-and-out brain-snap. I don’t even think he can explain why he did it, but he did,” he said.

“The raise of the elbow was clear, if you’re going to check and release, you don’t check and release with your elbow. If you’re doing a check and release as a player you have your arms up as a player.”

Originally published as Newcastle forward Mitch Barnett breaks silence on ‘shocking’ act