Rooster Lindsay Collins facing four game ban over hip drop tackle

The NRL is set to make an example out of Roosters Origin star Lindsay Collins, potentially rubbing him out of the remainder of the season.

Lindsay Collins season could be over. Photo: Fox Sports and Getty Images

Roosters and Queensland prop Lindsay Collins is facing spending the rest of the season on the sideline as the NRL continue to crackdown on hip drop tackles.

With less than five minutes left in the match, Collins was caught dropping onto the legs of Storm forward Tom Eisenhuth as the Roosters desperately defended their line.

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The incident was put on report and handed the Storm a penalty while Eisenhuth was carried from the field with an apparent leg injury.

Storm assistant coach Stephen Kearney, who fronted the media after coach Craig Bellamy went home with a migraine, said it was a “high ankle sprain” but added the medical staff hadn’t indicated the severity of the injury.

“At the moment it looks like a high ankle sprain, which is pretty common with that type of tackle, which he got caught up in,” Kearney said.

“Tommy’s come off and obviously couldn’t go back on.

“The ref (Adam Gee), I don’t know if he put that on report, again no doubt the match review committee will have a look at it.”

But while it didn’t get much punishment on the field, the NRL match review committee has hit Collins hard, slapping him with a grade three dangerous contact charge.

Lindsay Collins season could be over. Photo: Fox Sports

With the early guilty plea, Collins would only be available if the Roosters made the grand final, while if he challenges and loses, he will miss five matches.

It’s a more consistent stance for the NRL, who suspended Broncos star Pat Carrigan for four weeks for the tackle which broke the leg of Tigers half Jackson Hastings.

The hip drop is a much-maligned tackle in the NRL although the league has been seen as inconsistent on the issue.

Earlier this month, The Daily Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield reported on Sky’s Big Sports Breakfast hip drops had been charged and found guilty in the past four years. Of those, 21 were not suspended and 11 were suspended for a week.

Roosters coach Trent Robinson didn’t reveal much about the Collins incident after the match.

“I can’t really say much about that can I?” Robinson said.

“It is not for me to sort of go into.”

It led to NRL legend Gorden Tallis taking aim at Robinson, who delivered an impassioned defence after Jared Waerea-Hargreaves was sin binned and placed on report twice.

Tallis accused Robinson of ducking a question when it came to Collins’ incident.

“It was a bit weird when Lara (Pitt) asked him the question about the hip drop,” Tallis said.

“I talk to Trent on radio and he has always got an opinion on a lot of stuff that happens.

“It was a simple question. Yeah he has got nothing to worry about or he has got something to worry about.

“It is as simple as that. He saw it.

Lindsay Collins season could be over. Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

“As a coach it was just strange because he has normally got an opinion on everything.

“He had an opinion on the Manly jerseys. He has got an opinion on everything and just then he just chose to be quiet.

“I thought it was a fair question with what happened to (Patrick) Carrigan and what has been happening and Lara Pitt is just doing her job and asked, what did you think about the tackle?

“He had something to say about Jared’s (Waerea-Hargreaves) tackle. And this was another tackle.

“It is just a tackle in the game. Bit weird”

Originally published as Rooster Lindsay Collins facing four game ban over hip drop tackle