NRL 2020: Melbourne Storm’s Max King in strife over ‘hip drop’ tackle
Chicken wings, rolling pins, crushers - now rugby league is dealing with the hip drop tackle - and it has two of the most respected voices in the game locked in a war of words.
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Greg Alexander has slammed NRL coaches for “absolutely” encouraging the dangerous hip drop tackle, warning: “How many more broken ankles before we stamp it out?”.
On the eve of the NRL finals series, Alexander has urged match officials to sin bin — and then find lengthy suspensions for — any player who commits the latest atrocity in rugby league’s wrestling shame file all chicken wings, rolling pins and crusher tackles.
The Fox League analyst is demanding change after Melbourne prop Max King was referred straight to the NRL judiciary on Monday after being charged with dangerous contact, via an alleged hip drop tackle, on St George Illawarra rival Blake Lawrie.
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Commentating on the Sunday afternoon game for Fox Sports, Alexander slammed the King tackle as having “an intent to injure”— a statement Storm coach Craig Bellamy labelled afterwards as “ridiculous”.
Yet the war of words between the pair continued Monday when Alexander not only doubled down on his claim, but suggested all NRL players, including those at Storm, were well aware of the tackle’s potential to cause serious harm.
The NSW Origin advisor pointed to broken ankles suffered in similar tackles by rising Canberra star Emre Guler and Brisbane forward David Fifita, adding that it was only by “the Grace of God” that Laurie wasn’t also more seriously injured.
Asked if the Hip Drop tackle was being coach, Alexander said: “What? Absolutely.
“Everyone still has wrestling coaches – and that’s a move.
“Did you see the (King tackle)? Do you think it was an accident?”
“Do you think he meant to make the tackle he did? Did he put all the weight on the back of that player’s legs purposely?
“That’s how they do it.
“That’s how they bring the player to ground, they put all the weight on the back of the attacker’s legs.”
Asked about Bellamy’s suggestion that nobody went out to deliberately cause injury, Alexander said the Storm coach was “splitting hairs”.
“Everyone knows it’s a dangerous tackle,” he said. “Everyone knows the attacker is in a vulnerable position … Emre Guler broke his ankle in the same situation.
“So I think it’s splitting hairs saying there isn’t an intent to injure.
“You know very well (the potential consequences).
“So whatever way you want to term it, it’s the same result. The defender has a total disregard for the safety of the player he’s tackling.”
Alexander stressed the issue was not isolated to Melbourne, but added he had no concerns about Bellamy or Storm officials being upset by his comments.
“I don’t care,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me if anyone thinks I’ve over stepped the line.
Blake Lawrie off with leg injury, concern by video for syndesmosis/MCL injury (hopefully minor) with twist & contact in tackle. Once again variation of the hip drop tackle in practice, nasty technique. Has crept into the game & poses significant risk to knee/ankle of ball carrier pic.twitter.com/clgsFvvcOu
— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) September 27, 2020
“It’s a tackle that’s become the flavour of the 2020 season and the league needs to stop it.
“The player making that tackle has total disregard for the welfare of the bloke with the ball.
“And I know he’s not thinking at that split second ‘I want to injure this player’.
“But he knows that tackle has a huge chance of doing exactly what happened to Guler or Blake Laurie — who by the Grace of God didn’t break his ankle.”
While the NRL has vowed to crack down on the hip drop tackle, the Penrith legend urged for change to come quicker than it had on other dangerous wrestling manoeuvres, like the Crusher.
“I remember saying this about the crusher tackle three years ago — that it’s the worst tackle in the game,” he said.
“And it took us a while for us to say ‘shit, this is a bad tackle’.
“So how many more broken ankles, or damaged ligaments to knees and ankles do we need before saying ‘this isn’t good we better stamp it out?’.
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“The only way you can stamp it out is make the penalties bigger.”
Alexander added there was a big difference between deliberate hip drop tackles and players being caught in awkward positions.
“In contact sport people end up in positions that are unorthodox and awkward,” he said. “And they pick up injuries out of that.
“But you can stamp out the intentional ones.
“And you can tell.
“The crusher tackles, the hip drops … you can tell the ones that are intentional. And watching that tackle (on Sunday) he did exactly what he was thinking.”
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FRIZZ FAREWELLS DRAGONS WITH A DOUBLE
It may have been a year to forget for St George Illawarra, but they’ve given their fans something to smile about with a 30-22 win against Melbourne in the final game of the regular season.
The Dragons recovered from 12 points down to record their seventh win of the season, giving Red V supporters hope for next season.
Representative forward Tyson Frizell was handed a farewell gift as he scored a double in his final game for the Dragons before he links up with Newcastle next season.
Melbourne – who had already secured second place – wouldn’t be concerned by the loss considering coach Craig Bellamy rested 12 players including Cameron Smith, Cameron Munster, Josh Addo-Carr and Felise Kaufusi.
Bellamy even decided to play with just 12 men for the final five minutes because he didn’t want any of his players to get injured ahead of next Saturday night’s qualifying final against Parramatta at Suncorp Stadium.
“We only had one left on the bench and it was Brandon Smith,” Bellamy said.
“He had already had a rest so I didn’t want to send him out cold and get injured for next week
“There was plenty of effort, but there were a couple of moments we would’ve like to have handled a bit better and the players are aware of that.”
The Dragons hit the lead with 20 minutes left on the clock when Zac Lomax was awarded a penalty try after being tackled without the ball by Storm centre Ricky Leutele.
Their advantage was extended to eight in the ensuing set when hooker Cameron McInnes made a break up the middle and linked up with Matt Dufty for a try, before Frizell sealed the result with a four-pointer in the closing stages.
“We’re really happy with that win. It would’ve been a real downer to finish a tough year with another loss, especially with Melbourne resting so many players,” Dragons coach Dean Young said.
“At least now, there’s a bit of excitement about finishing the year off with a win, although there’s some work to be done and they’re well aware of that.”
FULLBACKS ON SHOW
The NRL is blessed to have a plethora of talented fullbacks in the competition in 2020 and two of them – Ryan Papenhuyzen and Matt Dufty – were on show on Sunday afternoon.
Dufty was arguably the best player on the field as he scored two tries to ensure the Dragons would finish the season with a victory.
He grabbed his first try of the afternoon after Cody Ramsey made a break down the right, kicked the ball to Zac Lomax, who toed the ball forward to Dufty, who dived on the ball to score.
The Dragons fullback also produced a stunning try assist when he threw a bullet ball to Frizell, who scored in his final game for the Dragons.
It was also a big afternoon for Papenhuyzen, who was named captain in the absence of Cameron Smith. The Storm No. 1 may have missed a couple weeks with injury, but he looked impressive throughout the first half.
It took just 10 minutes for Papenhuyzen to have an immediate impact when he burst through the defensive line and linked up with centre Paul Momirovski for the opening try of the game.
The Storm doubled their advantage in the next set as winger Sandor Earl found the line following a monster Ryley Jacks bomb and some ordinary Dragons defence.
Papenhuyzen had another try assist when sent a quick pass to Chris Lewis, who scored in the corner after 20 minutes.
YOUNG TALENT TIME
Not much went right for the Red V in 2020 but there’s plenty of hope for the future after the club showed off their young talent in the final game of the season.
Young five-eighth Jayden Sullivan had his chance to start against the Storm and he didn’t look out of place. Although he didn’t come up with any spectacular plays, he looked comfortable in attack and had a hand in his side’s opening try of the game.
He also faced a brutal initiation into first grade as he copped two massive shots in the first half, including a late shoulder charge by Storm prop Tui Kamikamica.
The Wests Devils junior is a local product, who captained the Steelers’ SG Ball team to a premiership in 2019 and represented the Under-18s New South Wales Origin team.
The biggest crowd roar of the day came when youngster Eddie Blacker came on for his debut match with 15 minutes remaining. The forward made an immediate impact with two big tackles and some strong carries.
19-year-old Max Feagai was also given another crack in the NRL on St George Illawarra’s left edge. He was caught out in defence a couple times but also came up with two giant hits in the first half.
“It’s great to have so many players come through our development system, so it was great to give them a chance,” Young said.
“I didn’t just select them because this game had no bearing on whether we’d make the finals. It was about making a stance because our performances hadn’t been good enough. Those players were rewarded and it was great that they started their careers with a win.”
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WARRIORS DEPART WINNERS ON AND OFF THE FIELD
The Warriors will head back to New Zealand as everyone’s second favourite team and with the two competition points after they trounced the Sea Eagles 40-28 in a good old-fashioned game of touch footy.
The points flowed like free champagne at a work Christmas party with neither side keen to defend on a sparkling day on the Central Coast as fans sweated every try that affected tipping comps, multis and SuperCoach grand finals.
It was the perfect farewell for the Warriors given their selfless sacrifices to keep the competition alive; a sentiment perfectly illustrated by the Sea Eagles who performed a guard of honour as the hosts ran out for Adam Blair’s last game in the NRL.
“He mentors the younger guys, particularly the Maori and Polynesian kids and shows them how to prepare and train during the week,” coach Todd Payten said of the retiring veteran who received a Haka from his teammates after the game.
“Whether or not he’s contributing in large amounts on the field, the stuff he does off it is invaluable, and no one sees it.”
Finals footy may not be on the cards, but an exceptionally difficult year may have laid the foundations for a revolution across the ditch. Interim coach Todd Payten has worked wonders and you only hope Nathan Brown can build on it in 2021.
Eliesa Katoa looks like a genuine star, Tohu Harris is the glue and the club now has stability in the halves for the first time in years.
While the positives are endless for the Warriors, the same cannot be said for Manly. They were considered premiership contenders but will head into the off-season with more questions than answers after a shocking end to the year.
STORY OF THE YEAR
You can no longer bet on the Dally M Awards, but if you could, you’d put the house on Roger Tuivasa-Sheck to claim captain of the year honours. However, the accolades shouldn’t stop there.
The Peter Frilingos headline moment of the year is usually reserved for flashes of brilliance, but they should buck the trend and reward the Warriors for their sustained contributions to keep the competition afloat.
What they’ve done in 2020 cannot be understated, and the fact rival teams have thanked them at every turn says everything you need to know about a club that is on the rise. Hopefully their story is only just getting started.
NRL CEO Andrew Abdo spoke for everyone when he said the Warriors were a highlight of his in 2020, while players, coaches and even Prime Minister Scott Morrison thanked them as part of a video montage.
“I’ve been on the phone a couple of time with Andrew,” Payten said.
“Early on, I thought it was lip service. It gave our guys a little bit of an out in terms of an excuse.
“We did make some huge sacrifices, and I just thought early on in the piece, everyone was patting us on the back for that and we held onto that to use it as an excuse to not perform the right way.
“But we turned that around and made it about performing well for everyone back home by putting in the right effort. I’m proud that they represented everyone the right way.”
INDEFENSIBLE
The Sea Eagles can blame injuries for their disastrous season, but you only have to look at their defence to work out why things have gone so wrong in 2020. Des Hasler’s return last year saw them improve greatly, only allowing 446 points in 24 rounds en route to the finals.
But things fell apart this season from Round 12 onwards as they conceded 42, 26, 26, 56, 30, 34, 20, 42 and 40 to finish with the third worst defensive record in the NRL, ahead of only the Cowboys and Broncos. In the end, they gave up more points in 20 games than they did in 24 matches last season.
They are one of the best teams to watch when their attack clicks, but flair will only get you so far in a competition that is generally won by the most frugal sides.
“If you score six tries then you expect to win,” Hasler said.
“We’ve got to be able to show more resilience.”