NRL 2022: Dale Finucane heads to judiciary over Stephen Crichton hit
Lock in Tuesday for a big night at the judiciary with Dale Finucane to fight a dangerous contact incident that saw Stephen Crichton sent to hospital.
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Dale Finucane will head to the judiciary and plead not guilty to a sickening head clash that left Penrith’s Stephen Crichton needing surgery on his ear.
The Sharks met with prominent lawyer Nick Ghabar and supreme district court judge Paul Conlon before submitting their response to the grade three dangerous contract charge.
Finucane is facing a three-week ban if he is found guilty at the judiciary.
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Monster hit leaves Panthers star with shocking cut
This is the sickening image which left Penrith star Stephen Crichton bloodied and unable to remember the incident.
Crichton was left heavily concussed after being struck in a Dale Finucane accidental head clash.
Finucane went unpunished for the incident, which forced Crichton from the field late in the second half. His ear was a bloodied mess and needed immediate attention from Penrith medical staff to repair the damage.
“I’m only getting my senses back now,” Crichton said.
“I can’t remember what happened. It’s good to get my memory back now. The cut happened from the head clash.”
Crichton had no recollection of the incident.
Penrith players protested the tackle but Cronulla coach Craig Fitzgibbon was adamant the tackle was nothing more than a head clash.
“It’s weird that that’s ok and the mildest of taps are not ok,” Cleary said. “His ear is awful.
“He has seen better days. He is in good spirits. I am sure the last thing Dale Finucane wanted to do was injure (Crichton).
“Historically, head clashes have been a head clash. But how easy it is to give a high tackle penalty away now… it looked bad. He is not in a great way.
“There’s an argument there for careless. I thought we’d at least get a penalty.”
Finucane was not impacted by the tackle despite the ferocity of the impact.
REINVIGORATED PANTHERS REPEL SHARKS
Penrith shrugged off an early case of the Origin hangover to come back from a double-digit deficit and topple Cronulla 20-10 in the wet.
With their seven State of Origin stars back from a well-needed rest on Saturday night, the ladder leaders flexed their premiership muscle with three unanswered tries against a title contender to open up a whopping 10-point lead at the top of the table.
“I was really happy with the fight. We definitely missed the mark at the start,” Panthers coach Ivan Cleary said. “Half the team had been away for a week so it was probably the time where you might get found out a bit.”
Cronulla poster boy Nicho Hynes and the Sharks have impressed many by rising as a serious threat to the Panthers’ premiership hopes. And while they didn’t disappoint, they failed to fire a shot in the second half.
“All the things that you have to get out of a footy team to be good at the end of the year, we will take a lot out of that. But there are things we know we have to work on with execution,” Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon said.
“The guys are disappointed because we feel like we have more to offer than that. There is a lot of confidence you take out of it, confidence to get in the arm-wrestle.”
BLUE BRAWL
One of the mouth-watering showdowns was always going to be the red-hot Hynes against incumbent Blues halves Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai.
After celebrating a contract extension just a few weeks ago, Matt Moylan returned to his old club and created the first try of the night. A few minutes later he was back at it, scoring under the posts on the back of a Hynes bomb that bamboozled Panthers custodian Dylan Edwards.
With the Panthers up 14-10, Moylan earned his side another set after a classy grubber kick into the in-goal. Cleary hit back immediately with a laser-bullet dropout that streaked across the sideline. With two minutes to play, Luai charged through the Sharks to seal the win.
FITZ AND FIRING
The perfect example of the belief within Fitzgibbon’s outfit was the team’s opening try of the night.
Moylan bombed across field with Jesse Ramien struggling out of traffic and flinging a pass wide to makeshift winger Connor Tracey, who beat several Panthers across the line including the much bigger Viliame Kikau.
In the 16th minute, after dropping a ball close to his own line, Siosifa Talakai made up for it from the scrum by smashing Luai and forcing the error.
“Loved our effort, loved the spirit we played with, we were in the contest,” Fitzgibbon said.
“Ticked a lot of boxes in that regard. We knew that to get something out of tonight we had to execute so I am disappointed about that.
“It took an enormous amount of effort. I thought we played pretty tough, but it didn’t amount to any pressure.”
DECENT CRACK
As the rest of the NRL battle for second fiddle to Penrith, the Sharks put their hand up as a genuine potential option despite the loss.
There is little doubting Penrith’s premiership credentials with the likes of Cronulla, North Queensland, Melbourne now in a fight to try and halt the Panthers from securing back-to-back premierships. Cronulla gave this a decent crack.
“We were pleased with the way we got up and running,” Fitzgibbon said.
“We executed poorly in the second half and allowed a quality team to control the field possession. We didn’t mount enough pressure in the end.
“I loved our effort and spirit. We were in the contest. We knew to get something out of tonight we had to execute. We didn’t just want to dumb it down for the sake of holding the ball. We were too shallow in attack.”
It was a poor seven-minute period either side of halftime that cost Cronulla victory.
“We knew when you came here you have to aim up,” Fitzgibbon said. “We trained with intent. Our attitude was spot on. We were ready to test ourselves. We have to understand we need to be better and work on that.”
Despite the loss Cronulla will finish the round in the top four and face an important game against South Sydney on Saturday.
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