Cameron Munster has applauded Melbourne Storm teammate Harry Grant for “making a stand” and risking being fined an extra $500 by fighting a dangerous contact charge at the NRL judiciary.
Grant was shocked to have been sin-binned, let alone charged, for making contact with Daniel Atkinson’s leg after the Cronulla five-eighth had kicked the ball on Saturday night.
The Storm captain was fined $1000, which will increase to $1500 if he loses his case at the judiciary on Tuesday.
The hourly rate for lawyer Nick Ghabar will exceed any penalty Grant will be required to pay – but the representative hooker insists he did nothing wrong.
He even joked after the game – won 25-18 by Cronulla – that he was prepared to challenge the on-field decision, “[which] would have been the worst challenge in history … I guess they’ve set that [precedent] now”.
Munster agreed and said any player who “clips a leg has to go for 10 the rest of the season”.
Referee Grant Atkins sends Harry Grant to the sin bin.Credit: NRL Images
“It’s unfortunate, and as everyone in the game know, all we want is consistency,” Munster told this masthead on Monday. “If that’s the line-in-the-sand moment, and the way [the NRL] want to approach it, that’s fine.
“You had Lachie Ilias at Souths involved with something similar, and he broke his leg, so I understand where the game is coming from.
“But I watched the Roosters and Warriors on the weekend. There was an incident involving Sandon Smith, but he wasn’t even penalised.
“Harry is just trying to make a stand. He didn’t go out to hurt Daniel Atkinson at all. He has a good case. He never dived at his legs, he only wanted to put some pressure on him. It didn’t look good, I understand the penalty, but was it a sin bin?”
Meanwhile, Munster and fellow Queensland star Ben Hunt refused to write off NSW despite the Blues losing star halfback Nathan Cleary for this year’s Origin series with a hamstring injury.
Cleary’s likely replacement, Mitch Moses, is a chance of returning for Parramatta against the Storm on Sunday.
Mitchell Moses during last year’s State of Origin series.Credit: Getty
“Whoever the Blues put out there will be decent, and we can’t take them lightly – look what happened in 2020 with us,” said Munster, whose Maroons overcome their own injuries that year to stun NSW 2-1.
“There’s no player in the game that is better at game management than [Cleary] – you can have a really bad set and he can change thing with a kick.
“If you look at the weekend, we put all our eggs in the one basket with [trying to defend] Nicho Hynes, we worried about him all week, then he didn’t play. It probably took the pressure off Dan Atkinson, and look how he played. If you focus on one player, it takes away from everyone else.”
Munster said the Queenslanders would remain underdogs because, “we’re just blue-collar Queenslanders: heads down, arse up”.
Hunt added: “Nathan brings a lot. He’s a cool, calm head as a half, he really sticks to the plan. His kicking game is exceptional, his running game is exceptional, and he does all the little things you want your halfback to do well.
“[But] you focus on the players they do pick, not the ones who aren’t there. And they have a fair pool of quality players to pick from.”
Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.