Broncos star Tevita Pangai Jr charged over Cooper Cronk hit

Forget about Cooper Cronk’s shoulder or even his ribs. Lasting damage to his neck and head are the big concerns after he was brutally tackled off the ball by Broncos hitman Tevita Pangai Jr on Thursday night.

Cooper Cronk was put at huge risk by this dangerous tackle.

• HUMILIATION: Things go from bad to worse for Broncos

• COLMAN: Broncos lose outright after being sent back in

Forget about Cooper Cronk’s shoulder or even his ribs. Lasting damage to his neck and head are the big concerns after he was brutally tackled off the ball by Broncos hitman Tevita Pangai Jr.

Cronk hit the deck in the 17th minute of Thursday night’s match at the SCG after the 118kg Pangai hit him late at full speed.

Initial concerns centred around possible rib damage or even reinjury of the previously broken shoulder Cronk played with through last year’s grand final, but Brisbane-based physiotherapist Brien Seeney said his initial fears were for the Roosters halfback’s head and neck.

Seeney, known to rugby league fans as NRL Physio on social media, said rib and shoulder injuries might be painful but the damage wasn’t long-lasting.

Tevita Pangai Jr has been charged for his hit on Roosters star Cooper Cronk. Picture: Phil Hillyard

“With the tackle last night it’s that whiplash effect that you see... so the head lurching backwards and forwards when Cronk was relaxed - that can cause not only a lot of issues around his neck and upper back but whiplash is a pretty common mechanism for concussion,” Seeney said.

“You don’t need to get hit in the head to suffer a concussion.

“There’s so many rules in our game that protect the defenceless player and we want to protect those players because when you’re defenceless you can’t prevent certain injuries.

“When a player releases the ball it is an automatic repsonse for the body to relax and then copping a hit from your blindside means the player’s body has taken that automatic protection response to stop damage.”

The Pangai Jr tackle has dealt his club another blow in the wake of their 36-4 loss to the Roosters, with the forward facing a two-match suspension after being charged with a grade-two dangerous contact charge by the NRL match-review committee.

Cooper Cronk gets worked on in the sheds at half-time.

The Tongan international has the opportunity to contest the charge but he is almost certain to plead guilty to striking Cronk.

Even with an early guilty plea in the coming days, Pangai Jr will attract 210 demerit points - which would rule him out of this Thursday night’s clash against the Wests Tigers and Brisbane’s round six road trip to face his former club the Raiders in Canberra.

Pangai Jr’s cause is not helped by his record with the Broncos bookend receiving a 20 per cent loading for two non-similar offences in the past two years. He also has 40 carry-over points, leaving him facing the disappointment of a two-game ban.

Champion playmakers Andrew Johns and Johnathan Thurston blasted Pangai Jr for his late hit on Cronk, calling it a “dog shot” and demanding the NRL get tougher to eliminate the practice of defenders taking out the code’s playmakers with cheap shots.

It capped a nightmare 24 hours for Pangai Jr, who learned his father, Tevita, had suffered a heart attack and needed surgery just hours before kick-off.

The Broncos prop had been urged by his father to play against the Roosters, who have been linked with the off-contract Tongan powerhouse.

Cooper Cronk is treated by medical staff after Tevita Pangai Jr’s late hit. Picture: AAP

Broncos teammates were sympathetic to his family concerns and captain Darius Boyd said the 23-year-old had been trying in his hit on Cronk to apply pressure on a playmaker.

“We talk about our forward pack pressuring the other team’s halves,’’ Boyd said.

“Whether it was a bit late of not, it was Tevita trying to do what is part of his job.

“It was probably a bit late, but we were all off in a lot of areas in that game.’’

Pangai has become a player who seems to feel he has to make big statements in defence, as evidenced when he rushed up and didn’t get to Korbin Sims in a try against the Dragons the previous week.

Asked if Pangai had been trying too hard since his headline-grabbing tackles to disrupt the Cowboys pack two weeks earlier, Broncos coach Anthony Seibold said: “You’d rather him try than not try. It’s a penalty.

“I’d prefer our players didn’t get penalised, no doubt about that.’’

Cronk was much less volatile in his reactions after the game than his two Test halfback predecessors Johns and Thurston, who condemned Pangai Jr.

“He didn’t miss me. It’s part of the game,’’ said Cronk, adding it had “hurt a lot’’.

Cronk had his scapular bone broken by a fearsome collision off the ball by South Sydney’s Sam Burgess in the preliminary final last year.