NRL 2023: Payne Haas, Ezra Mam cop one-game bans amid hip-drop outrage

Brisbane will be without star prop Payne Haas and young gun Ezra Mam for Friday night’s blockbuster against South Sydney at Suncorp Stadium.

Payne Haas's tackle of Reagan Campbell-Gillard was a talking point of the game.

The Broncos have been dealt a crushing blow with star duo Payne Haas and Ezra Mam suspended for Friday night’s blockbuster against South Sydney at Suncorp Stadium.

Brisbane’s impressive 26-16 defeat of the Eels came at a cost, with Haas and Mam both copping bans as the code’s hip-drop outrage intensified.

Broncos coach Kevin Walters on Sunday confirmed both pleaded guilty and will miss one game.

Parramatta rival J’maine Hopgood escaped suspension, with the Queensland Origin hopeful fined $1800 for a grade-one dangerous contact charge on Broncos hooker Cory Paix.

Haas was charged for his hip-drop tackle on NSW teammate Reagan Campbell-Gillard, who limped from the field with a groin injury. He faces two to three months on the sidelines, leaving him in doubt for Origin I.

Mam was picked up by the MRC for an incident involving Parramatta rival Matt Doorey.

Payne Haas will have a nervous wait on the match review committee.

EELS SEETHING AS STAR PROP RCG SIDELINED

Parramatta are seething over what they believe was a hip-drop tackle from Brisbane’s Payne Haas that will sideline their star prop Reagan Campbell-Gillard for up to three months.

It effectively ends his State of Origin hopes with selection for game one just weeks away.

On Friday night Campbell-Gillard limped from the field with a suspected hip fracture that is expected to be an eight to 12 week injury after his former NSW teammate Haas brought him to the ground in an awkward position.

The Eels believe it was an illegal hip-drop tackle, but Haas wasn’t placed on report for the contact.

Reagan Campbell-Gillard injured his groin as a result of this tackle from Payne Haas.

However, both Ezra Mam and J’maine Hopgood were, for very similar tackles in the Broncos’ 26-16 win.

Although no one was seriously hurt as a result of the Mam and Hopgood contact, Campbell left Darwin’s TIO Stadium in an ambulance.

Brad Arthur was furious that Haas wasn’t penalised at a crucial point in the game, with the Eels mounting a comeback and Mam already in the bin.

“I’m not an expert on hip drops, but to me, all three of them look pretty similar and I know which one has the worst result,” he said.

“If their feet are off the ground, and that’s what happened (with Haas).”

When asked if the contact was a hip drop, he replied: “Go and ask Reg.”

Ezra Mam was sin-binned for a hip-drop tackle.

The confusion comes amid an unofficial NRL crackdown on this kind of dangerous tackle that has seen a spate of sin-binnings across the first eight rounds of the competition.

The Eels know all too well the pain the dangerous manoeuvre can cause after outside back Haze Dunster missed more than a year with ruptured MCL, ACL and PCLs in his knee as a result of a hip drop tackle from St George Illawarra forward Tyrell Fuimaono.

The complex injury could have ended Dunster’s career. The incident happened in the 2022 pre-season and he has only just returned to the field for the Eels.

Both Hopgood and Mam could appear on the NRL’s charge sheet on Saturday morning, and Arthur expects to see Haas’s name there too.

“That’s not my call, I’m not the expert on hip drops and if the tackle is a hip drop [Haas] should be charged,” he said.

“The people who decide that, they’ll have to live with the decision. I do know we’ll miss Reg for a long time.”

As expected, Broncos coach Kevin Walters was more subdued in his view on the contact and the difference in on-field ruling.

“We’re all aware to get rid of it because no one likes making that tackle, no one coaches it. We certainly don’t, it’s just one that’s crept up in the game,” Walters said.

“Everyone’s aware of it and we as coaches and the players are trying to avoid that sort of situation, but on your line, game on the line, you’ve got to stop them from scoring, and that’s where both of the incidents happened.

“It’s desperate.

“They’re big men and they play hard.”

MATCH REPORT: MAM, REYNOLDS BOOST BRONCOS PAST EELS

Adam Reynolds of the Broncos is congratulated by Jordan Riki and Kotoni Staggs. Picture: Getty Images

Brisbane duo Ezra Mam and Adam Reynolds took great delight in bamboozling Parramatta’s struggling backline for a 26-16 win in steamy conditions in Darwin on Friday night.

The Eels desperately attempted a comeback in the final 20 minutes but a ruthless first half demotion turned the torch onto their flimsy defence at TIO Stadium.

Wins against Wests Tigers and the Bulldogs flattered the Eels’ form, but Friday night’s loss created more questions for the season ahead.

Reynolds and Mam were at their electric best for the crowd of 11,864 fans who stood staunch in the pouring rain.

And between them they had three try-assists and two tries to help the Broncos to their seventh win for the year.

PAYNE DELIVERS… AGAIN

It would be weirder if Rugby Australia didn’t want Haas.

After a week of headlines about their pursuit of the blockbusting Broncos and NSW prop, he produced another enormous performance in some of the most difficult conditions of the year.

The 117kg weapon has been committed to the holy month of Ramadan, fasting during daylight hours, and still delivering for the Broncos.

On Friday night it was 30 degrees at kick off with humidity at 75 per cent, but he still got through 200 metres and five tacklebreaks.

“I never thought I’d see another player like Glenn Lazarus”, said Immortal Andrew Johns in Channel Nine commentary.

It goes without saying that the Broncos – and rugby league – needs to keep him.

The Eels look dejected after a Brisbane try. Picture: NRL Images

MIDDLE PROBLEMS

Eels hooker Josh Hodgson made his return after missing the biggest win of the year with the flu, a 30-4 victory against the Bulldogs last week.

But on Friday night he still looked out of sorts. Defending in the middle he was brought undone by Brisbane’s relentless big men and by the time he was interchanged late in the first half, he’d missed five tackles. He didn’t return to the field.

One bad miss was a crucial one on Mam, who stepped the 33-year-old hooker and produced a magic no-look flick pass to put Reynolds under the posts to score.

Ex-Panthers whiz-kid Brendan Hands was warming the bench until he was brought on for Hodgson, and just how coach Brad Arthur intends to play the play throughout the rest of the season remains to be seen.

On form though, it appears Hands is in front.