Souths coach demands NRL throw book at Jared Waerea-Hargreaves’ ‘ordinary act’

Souths coach Jason Demetriou has demanded the NRL make an example of a Roosters star, which would once again expose the game’s inconsistency.

Souths coach Jason Demetriou has called for a crackdown. Photo: Getty Images and Fox Sports

Souths coach Jason Demetriou has demanded the NRL make an example out of Sydney Roosters enforcer Jared Waerea-Hargreaves for his ugly elbow which saw the hardman sent to the sin bin.

Waerea-Hargreaves was sent to the sin bin after a tackle in which he fell with his elbow out to the head of Rabbitohs prop Tom Burgess and ended his afternoon.

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The chaotic elimination final won 30-14 by the Rabbitohs was a wild affair with seven sin bins but Demetriou singled out Waerea-Hargreaves’ as the most egregious.

“We are talking about concussions as a serious part of our game, and we are talking about the referees and the game as a whole doing things to protect the players,” Demetriou said in the post-match press conference.

“But if a player wants to hold somebody who is defenceless and slam his head into the ground, when does the responsibility come back on the player?

“It just think it is an ordinary act, and I think the game has to come down on it.

“You know what you are doing when you slam a bloke’s head into the ground, I just think as a player you have got to have some respect for the opposition.

“If you don’t, then who are you?”

Hargreaves was one of seven sin bins. Photo: Fox Sports

Hard to argue that one. Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

But the NRL may have a problem on its hands if it clamps down on the Hargreaves’ moment as its got a clear precedent this season.

Hargreaves had previously been fined after hitting Manly rival Zac Fulton with an elbow on the ground during the infamous Pride jersey match with ball in hand.

Similarly Melbourne’s Felise Kaufusi escaped with a fine in June when he landed on Roosters half Sam Walker with his elbow up while in possession.

But the poster boy for these controversial elbows has been the Storm's Nelson Asofa-Solomona, who has been called out for ugly elbows on the Roosters’ Joseph Suaali’i late last month and fined, and in round 20 where he was unpunished for an elbow which cracked two teeth of Warriors hooker Wayde Egan and let off scot-free.

It sparked an impassioned defence from his coach Craig Bellamy.

It’s not only JWH. Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

But the Rabbitohs coach continued to say that he doesn’t have a problem with the collision in the sport but the issue comes when a player hits a defenceless rival.

“I think they are just two big men going at it, but it isn’t just the Roosters, it is across the board it happens,” Demetriou said.

“It is happening too often, we see it all the time and a head slam when a bloke is defenceless, and it happens accidentally sometimes, but the deliberate ones, we have to come down on them.

“I just think, we are getting three men in a tackle, we are locking the ball up, he is defenceless and we are slamming him down with 120kg of weight on the back of his head.

“Tom is a big man but everyone saw how badly he got out of that tackle, not just saying for Tom, but for all players to take a real serious look at how we look after each other.”

Originally published as Souths coach demands NRL throw book at Jared Waerea-Hargreaves’ ‘ordinary act’