By Joel Gould
Gold Coast coach Des Hasler declared there was “a lot of confusion” amongst NRL teams about what constituted a high shot after six players were put on report in the 48-22 win by Sydney Roosters over the Titans.
Hasler, who only had prop Jaimin Jolliffe (dangerous tackles) amongst the six at Robina, said the confusion needed to be sorted out before the finals.
The Roosters had prop Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, centre Joseph-Aukuso Suaalii and second-rower Victor Radley put on report for high shots. Winger Daniel Tupou was reported for dangerous contact and prop Spencer Leniu for a shoulder charge.
“There is not a lot of confidence with players around what is a high shot and what isn’t a high shot ... what is deemed (to be a high shot) and what is coming back (from officials),” Hasler said.
“There is a lot of nervous people on both sides at the moment.
“The officials seem to be down on confidence a little bit at the moment and it is probably something we have to address pretty quickly going into finals.”
Waerea-Hargreaves was put on report and binned after The Bunker reviewed his high hit on Gold Coast hooker Sam Verrills in the lead-up to a try by Titans winger Alofiana Khan-Pereira.
The incident had been missed on-field, as was South Sydney captain Cameron Murray’s high shot on Newcastle forward Tyson Frizell earlier in the round.
“Watching the game, [referee] Chris Butler didn’t sin-bin a high shot (by Murray) on Frizell,” Hasler said.
“One or two minutes later the call came from somewhere and the other player (Murray) was sin-binned.”
Coach Des Hasler: “We need to be really confident about that part of the game because there were a lot of penalties.”Credit: Getty
There have been calls for a summit between coaches, officials and administrators to resolve such issues.
“I have every confidence in Peter [V’landys] and Andrew [Abdo] but it is something we need to address. There is a lot of confusion,” Hasler said.
“We need to be really confident about that part of the game because there were a lot of penalties today and there were a lot of players on report.”
Hasler also expressed disappointment over the 16 penalties awarded in Sunday afternoon’s fixture.
AAP