The NRL has been labeled embarrassing for their explanation as to why Storm star Nelson Asofa-Solomona escaped sanction for cracking Wayde Egan’s teeth with his elbow.
Asofa-Solomona was not even charged by the match review committee, despite being placed on report and penalized on the field for slamming his elbow and forearm onto the face of Egan as he fell to the ground in a tackle.
“There were a lot of incidents over the weekend with the Nelson Asofa-Solomona one the most contentious by a long way,” Braith Anasta said on NRL 360.
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“What I struggle to come to terms with is I saw a head clash (Dale Finucane on Stephen Crichton) last week get two weeks and I see this and he gets nothing.”
Paul Kent blasted the NRL’s feeble explanation by disputing all three assertions they made around Asofa-Solomona’s actions.
“Let me just bring up some things,” Kent said.
“They said, there is a separation out there. If I am going to punch you in the face right now, there is going to be separation at some point between my fist and your face before it gets there, but there will be eventual contact. That’s the first thing.
“Second, there was not enough force to warrant a charge. I have cracked his teeth. Two teeth. So not enough force to warrant a charge?
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“Third, there was possible contact to the neck and chin area. Again, I cracked his teeth.
“What part of head contact do they not understand there. If you have got cracked teeth from a tackle, how do you say there is not enough force and possible contact to the neck or chin area?”
Paul Crawley labeled Luke Patten and Graham Annesley’s explanation as the dumbest thing ever to come out of NRL HQ in a stunning take-down.
“That’s the dumbest explanation that I have ever heard come out of the NRL from Luke Patten,” Crawley said.
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“For Graham Annesley, a bloke that has been around the game for as long as he has to stand there and allow that to be said and expect that everyone is just going to suck that up and accept it.
“Like seriously it is so embarrassing. They have got to be better.
“That was a shocking tackle. Jared Waerea-Hargreaves got a $3000 fine for his tackle on Zac Fulton. It wasn’t as bad as this.
“This gets off. This doesn’t even get to fine. This gets nothing.
“And this is on the back of Asofa-Solomona having two separate charges last week. Two ends. The week before in Round 18 another one. Earlier in the season another one.
“That’s four ends this year and this one gets nothing.”
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