Curtis Scott sent off and three Manly players sin-binned in spiteful clash
CURTIS Scott was sent off, four players were sin-binned and two of them returned to the field early - Manly’s 24-4 win over Melbourne will take some beating as the most controversial game of the year.
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SCANDAL has erupted in Melbourne after a wild brawl dotted Manly’s 24-4 victory over the Storm.
And the fallout will no doubt be dissected in the days to come after it appeared two sin-binned players returned to the field early, a situation which could cost Manly the two competition points.
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The latest meeting between the two old rivals was a bitter, niggling affair with tension rising throughout the match.
When the dust settled Manly took home the but the main talking point will be the fight and resultent dismissals that took place midway through the second half.
ITS BACK!!!!!#NRLStormManly pic.twitter.com/jiZpD8eEN7
— NRL Roast (@TheNRLRoast) May 19, 2018
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Dylan Walker, who loves getting under his opponents skin, had a running battle with his opposite number Curtis Scott and things boiled right over in the 52nd minute.
Punches were thrown by Scott, Walker and Manly hooker Api Koroisau — the former was sent off, the latter two were sin-binned.
Scott was the first man sent off in the NRL since David Shillington in 2015.
There was later speculation Koroisau and Matthew Wright, who came on instead of Walker due to Walker undergoing a HIA, returned to the field early.
Walker did not play another minute, with the star centre sustaining a possible fractured eye socket.
According to the Fox League game clock, Koroisau and Wright both returned to the field after eight minutes and 19 seconds - a full minute and 41 seconds early.
According to a statement released by the NRL on Saturday night, club officials are tasked with the responsibility of time keeping for sin bins.
Bellamy on timekeeping error: "We've got enough to worry about. I'm not sure what happened." #purplepride
— Melbourne Storm (@storm) May 19, 2018
“The NRL will conduct a full review of the timing of the dismissals and the process.
“The responsibility of timing for sin bins is held by the clubs, although in this instance it appears there were no club-supplied sin-bin operators present at the venue.
“Visiting clubs must nominate their personell for timing of temporary suspensions, making themselves known to a club nominee.
“But if a visiting club does not nominate anyone for this purpose they must accept the timing of the home team sin bin operator.”
Melbourne football manager Frank Ponissi was spotted berating an NRL official as the two returned to the field.
While both coaches said they weren’t clear on what happened, Ponissi confirmed the error.
But Ponissi said that given the 24-4 scoreline, it was unlikely they would take it further.
“It was obviously an error and he made a mistake but I personally don’t want to dwell on it,” Ponissi said.
“He made a mistake and, hopefully, it doesn’t happen again.”
Storm CEO David Donaghy rang Brian Canavan and Todd Greenberg as the game was still going to lodge his process.
Craig Bellamy was angry with the performance of his Storm but didn’t want to get drawn into discussions of the sin binning incident.
“It was madness really. At the end of the day I can’t remember the last time we played as poorly,” Bellamy said.
“The second half was crap, the players are aware of that. I’m very disappointed in that second half performance.
When quizzed about the time-keeping situation Bellamy said he had no idea where the blame lay and he didn’t want to use that as an excuse.
“At the end of the day that’s up to the hierarchy if there was an error or there wasn’t an error. I’ve got more things to worry about than that.”
“We’ll worry about our performance more than we’ll worry about that.”
Bellamy said it was important for Scott to learn from the incident.
“He needs to learn from this. That’s one thing you like about him, he’s really competitive. “That’s probably the first time he’s done that. He’ll learn from that because that’s going to be fairly costly to us but fairly costly to him as well.”
Jake Trbojevic was also sin-binned in the first half while Josh Addo-Carr was dismissed in the final minutes for a professional foul.
MANLY 24 (M Suli T Trbojevic A Uate M Wright tries T Hodkinson 3 D Cherry-Evans goals) bt MELBOURNE 4 (C Munster 2 goals) at AAMI Park. Referee: Henry Perenara, Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski. Crowd: 13,172.