Ivan Cleary weighs in on hip-drop confusion as Panthers choose not to fight Mitch Kenny charge

The Panthers were tempted to fight Mitch Kenny’s hip-drop charge, with Ivan Cleary concerned about how the tackle is being policed in 2025.

Ivan Cleary is the latest high-profile coach to weigh in on the hip-drop tackle confusion in the NRL with the premiership winning Penrith coach declaring wording of the rule has changed so much that the “hip drop isn’t a hip drop anymore”.

Fellow coaches Wayne Bennett and Benji Marshall have said recently the same thing, that they don’t know what a hip drop is anymore, both having had players penalised for incidents that didn’t look overly concerning.

Tigers forward Samuela Fainu was penalised but wasn’t charged for a tackle on Monday that led to the Eels scoring three tries in six minutes, while the Panthers will be without hooker Mitch Kenny for two matches after he was suspended on the weekend.

Roosters coach Trent Robinson was stunned that no action was taken on the field for a tackle that is set to sideline Nat Butcher indefinitely with a knee injury.

Nat Butcher won’t return & will go for scans after suffering a suspected medial knee injury.

Pretty textbook mechanism with tackler falling on outside of leg causing knee to collapse in - video suggests MCL injury of most concern, hopefully any secondary damage (eg ACL) avoided. pic.twitter.com/wzHHSuBYEX

— NRL PHYSIO (@nrlphysio) April 19, 2025

But Cleary is worried about the current interpretation of the tackle, with the Panthers considering whether to challenge Kenny’s grade two dangerous contact charge before they eventually took the early guilty plea.

“I feel like the hip drop isn’t a hip drop anymore because the wording has changed so it can be any part of your body,” he said, arguing the game is played at breakneck speed and that players don’t deliberately go out to injure opponents.

“I feel like it’s an eye for an eye so if someone gets injured, someone has got to be at fault.

“We went through this trying to work out if we wanted to fight the charge because we thought it was a little harsh.

“It’s really unfortunate for Nat Butcher because no one wants to see anyone get injured, but the wording is so broad.

“When it’s so broad, you’re going to get instances when it’s all over the place whether it is or isn’t (a hip drop) and who thinks one is or isn’t.”

Luke Sommerton is the man most likely to come in for Kenny who has become a crucial cog in Penrith’s spine despite copping some criticism a few years ago when he replaced the electric Api Koroisau at dummy-half.

Mitch Kenny has had a strong start to the year but will miss the next two games. Picture: Ethan Miller/Getty Images/AFP

“Mitch has done an amazing job at our club, especially when he was quite maligned when Api left for some time when he was being compared to him,” Cleary said.

“That was a little unfair, but he’s really become his own player and his own man. He’s been a huge part of our team.”

Kenny will miss the match against Manly on the weekend as Penrith look to make it back-to-back wins following their horror start to the season.

Cleary once wore the same broken watch for eight weeks in 2020 because he’s superstitious, and he’s unsure whether he’ll remain on the sidelines on Saturday after he decided to ditch the aerial view from the box for the Roosters game.

“I don’t know (if we’re back) but I was happy with how we played on the weekend,” he replied when asked if the premiers were back on track.

“If we build from there then we’ll wait and see (if we’re back). But it was definitely a step in the right direction.”

Originally published as Ivan Cleary weighs in on hip-drop confusion as Panthers choose not to fight Mitch Kenny charge