‘Get it through your thick head’: Debate explodes over NRL star’s ‘reckless’ high shot

A panel of NRL experts have fiercely debated whether a Roosters star’s punishment for a high shot was fair in a very heated exchange.

Paul Kent could not belief Daniel Tupou’s tackle was deemed careless.

A furious debate has exploded over whether Sydney Roosters winger Daniel Tupou should have been sent off a high tackle on St George Illawarra’s Mikaele Ravalawa on Anzac Day.

Tupou brought Ravalawa to the turf with a rogue coathanger but surprisingly wasn’t sin binned for the offence.

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He has since accepted a one week suspension for a careless high tackle charge.

On Tuesday night’s episode of NRL 360, the panel got into a fiery debate over the charge Tupou was given and why he wasn’t sent to the sin bin.

Rugby league reporter Paul Crawley said he was satisfied with the call not to send Tupou to the sin bin.

“I accept it was a sin bin but when I’m sitting at home and I’m watching that tackle and it’s Tupou, a cleanskin, it didn’t upset me that much,” he said.

“It wasn’t one of those tackles where you go, ‘That’s disgraceful’. It was a clumsy tackle, that’s what it was. And I think the match review committee today got it right with a grade 2.

“He gets one week. It’s not reckless, it’s careless. It’s come out on the charge sheet as a reckless tackle.”

NRL 360 co-host Paul Kent bristled at Crawley’s argument and was in disbelief Tupou was allowed to stay on the field and wasn’t charged with making a reckless tackle.

He said: “Please, it is a reckless tackle. It is not careless. It is reckless.

Daniel Tupou avoided the sin bin but was suspended for one game for this high shot. (AAP Image/Mark Evans)

“They got it wrong. You go back and watch Daniel Tupou’s right arm as it swings around.

“Look at the height and the fact is if Ravalawa hadn’t raised his hand it would have been straight across the mush (face).

“There’s no way that is ever going to hit anywhere other than his head. That is foreseeing it and he shouldn’t have made the tackle.”

Crawley disagreed and didn’t take kindly to Kent raising his voice at him.

“I happen to thing they got it right,” he said.

“Just because you speak with a loud voice doesn’t make me convinced it was a reckless tackle. I see it as a careless tackle.”

Kent hit back: “Well it’s the only way it’ll get through your thick head.

“That tackle has never been allowed in the game.”

Former Bulldogs and Dragons forward James Graham said the current penalties for errant tackles are dictated far too much by how the player tackled responds to the hit.

He said: “You know why he (Tupou) doesn’t go in the bin? Because Ravalawa gets up. That’s why he doesn’t get in the bin.

“Credit to Mika for getting up but if he stays down he knows he’s got to come off (for HIA), but then also Tupou leaves the field of play. I have no doubt if you run that again and Ravalawa stays down and the trainer comes on, Tupou is looking at a red (card).

Paul Kent and Paul Crawley went toe-to-toe over Daniel Tupou's high shot. Photo: Fox Sports.

“The reason it didn’t happen is because Mika got up. One of my grievances is around how they react to the severity of the injury, which shouldn’t happen.”

Kent then chimed in: “Do we need a head to roll over the sideline before we get a reckless charge?”

Broncos legend Corey Parker said it was an “absolute joke” Tupou wasn’t sent to the sin bin for the tackle.

“The disappointing thing is every week there’s an inconsistency based on that,” he said.

“I’m not buying into the careless, reckless. There was direct contact to the head. It should have been 10 in the bin at bare minimum.

“Every individual on that field including Daniel Tupou would have expected he would spend some time in the bin. It didn’t happen. It was an absolute joke.”

Dragons coach Anthony Griffin said after the game: “You would have got two years in jail at Magic Round last year for that.”

The Dragons won the clash 14-12 to upset the more fancied Roosters.