‘Don’t know what the answer is’: Hynes‘ hip drop plea as Payten defends Cowboys star

The NRL world is once again trying to get its head around the hip-drop tackle after an incident in which a star was ‘lucky not to sustain a broken leg’.

Nicho Hynes and Todd Payten.

Cowboys coach Todd Payten defended Jeremiah Nanai over his sin bin for a hip drop tackle as Sharks star Nicho Hynes launched a passionate defence of players over the outlawed practice.

Nanai is facing being the latest NRL player suspended amid the game’s crackdown on hip drop tackles, but Payten didn’t think it was a conventional one.

“Nanai I didn’t think he made a great deal of contact on the back of his leg,” Payten said.

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“I thought his ass and hips were away from the back of his leg.

“Braden jumped up pretty quickly to throw the ball at him, so it musn’t have been too bad initially.”

Sharks coach Craig Fitzgibbon revealed a medial injury for Hamlin-Uele, but didn’t want to get drawn in on a potential suspension for Nanai.

“It is a medial injury. He doesn’t look good at this stage, but it is obviously pretty early,” Fitzgibbon said.

“We need to cool the jets a bit there and see how he pulls up tomorrow.

“But it won’t be up to me as to what happens there.”

Nicho Hynes and Todd Payten.

Hynes defended NRL players amid the NRL’s bid to get the hip drop out of the game, stressing that it is an accidental tackle and not practiced at training.

“I had a decent look, but no player means to go out and do hip drops,” Hynes said.

“It is something that we need to fix somehow, but there is no player who goes out intentionally to do a hip drop tackle.

“It is just such an awkward position that it gets into. It is a hard one and I don’t know what the answer is to it.

“You don’t like seeing players sent for 10, but you also don’t like seeing players miss games because of it (through injury).

“We have Braden who might be missing games for it.

“That one if it is that bad then it deserves (a suspension). But there is some of them at the moment that I don’t think even warrant a penalty.

Jeremiah Nanai's hip drop on Braden Hamlin-Uele.

“That’s not just teams against us. That is everyone across the board.

“It is a hard one. We need to do something about it, but the refs are just reffing to what they see and what is going on at the moment and they are doing a good job.

“But there needs to be a way to fix it somehow. I don’t know the answer to that, but there has to be because no player goes out to do a hip drop.

“It just unfortunately gets into an awkward position and it happens.”

Speaking on Nine, Andrew Johns said the tackle was extremely dangerous and it was only luck that Hamlin-Uele’s leg wasn’t broken.

“That is a bad one. We have had a few this year where I thought they were accidents, that one there, that is dangerous,” Andrew Johns said.

“He is lucky he hasn’t got a broken leg.

“The worrying thing for that one, there was no momentum. Sometimes you see momentum and they naturally swing. He stops, and he swings himself around.”

Matty Johns believes Nanai is looking at a suspension given the game’s current stance and bid to get the hip drop tackle out of the game.

“Jeremiah Nanai for his tackle on Braden Hamlin-Uele, I tell you what it is similar to a lot of them,” Johns said.

Jeremiah Nanai of the Cowboys is sent to the sin-bin. (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

“He is in for a nervous wait. For what guys have been suspended for it doesn’t look good.”

However, Gorden Tallis and Nathan Hindmarsh questioned if Nanai’s feet left the ground.

“I’m confused with that,” Tallis said.

“Does he drop to his knees there?”

“His legs kind of stayed on the ground,” Himdmarsh said.

“Does that help him at all? They have slid around on the deck a bit.”

Meanwhile, Payten also took exception to Coen Hess’ sin bin for a trip on Sharks centre Jesse Ramien.

“I think Hess was really unlucky,” Payten said.

“I think it was a penalty, but it is what it is.”

- with news.com.au

Originally published as ‘Don’t know what the answer is’: Hynes‘ hip drop plea as Payten defends Cowboys star