The NRL’s heated hip drop debate is well and truly alive after Broncos enforcer Payne Haas surprisingly avoided the sin bin for an ugly tackle on Reagan Campbell-Gillard.
Two other players, J’maine Hopgood and Ezra Mam, were given their marching orders by referee Ashley Klein.
But Haas escaped sanction during the game, even though Campbell-Gillard was the only ballrunner that left the field injured and Eels coach Brad Arthur said his side would be without their key prop for a “long time” due to a groin issue.
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All three tackles from Friday night’s game will be analysed by the Match Review Committee. Several players have copped hefty bans in recent weeks for hip drop tackles, including Dale Finucane and Marata Niukore.
Fox League’s Yvonne Sampson now called for the NRL to make it “black and white” regarding what constitutes a hip drop tackle.
Rugby league legend Greg Alexander also explained he isn’t sure what the “solution” is moving forward with hip drop tackles occurring in almost every game.
“There would’ve been 1000 accidents over the last 50 years where players have just ended up on the backs of legs. It wasn’t until around 2019 and 2020 where we saw the three-man tackle with the hip drop coming in as the third man… It was an intentional lift of the body and legs. That was the tackle where everyone went ‘that’s not right,” Alexander said.
“Now we’re into this, little players being dragged along doing their best and ending up on the back of the legs of bigger players.
“I don’t know if there is one (solution) – and I don’t know how you backtrack now. So what do they say: ‘Hang on the sin bin is getting ludicrous, how do we peel it back and get to where we were last year?’ This isn’t a rush of players now having a new way to tackle people.”
While analysing Haas’ tackle on Campbell-Gillard, rugby league legend Michael Ennis questioned what the difference was between the three tackles.
He also outlined a way players can avoid making contact with the back of their opponent’s legs, suggesting tacklers need to drag their legs behind.
“Campbell-Gillard ducks under him… and Payne’s reaction is to try and stop him from scoring the try. So he ends up sliding around,” Ennis said.
“All his body weight, yes it does come down on the legs and Campbell-Gillard looked to be in significant pain… if we’re going down the path that we’re going down, Payne’s in some trouble.
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“The frustrating thing for fans sitting at home is they’re seeing the Hopgood one, they’re seeing the Ezra man one and if it’s the bunker that’s finding these, what are they seeing with the Payne Haas one?
“We’re going to see a huge focus on the clubs to try and alleviate these situations and try to find a different way to manage that type of tackle. The only way to do it, as in Hopgood’s case, is to keep sliding down there with your hands and leave your legs to drag from behind.
“When you look at the high shots too, there’s no intent from any of the players there to do anything nasty … it’s hard because you watch those player and you go: ‘It’s just an accident.’”
Ennis also said the “landscape has changed” in only a matter of weeks with the hip drop tackle becoming more prevalent.
Players are now being sent off if their feet leave the ground in the action of making a tackle — which was the case in Hopgood’s sin bin according to Alexander.
“I think a couple of weeks ago we look at it and go ‘that’s a bit tough’ … from what we’ve seen the last couple of weeks, that is a sin bin offence. It might look light, but that’s where the game’s going,” Ennis said.
“The game has evolved into that where you can get beaten for footwork and strength – then all of a sudden, as that player accelerates through to and you end up behind the player and you’re trying to bring them to the ground, I think the game wants you to use your arms to slide down in that old conventional tackle and wrap your legs.”
“Both feet come up in the air and he (Hopgood) makes the decision to come down … that’s where we are. Two feet can’t leave the ground to transfer your weight onto the back of the player,” Alexander said.
Hip drop confusion reigns Darwin | 00:48
“But there’s hip drops and there’s hip drops – and all three were different.”
Meanwhile, Mam’s hip drop tackle was considered the least dangerous as the young gun playmaker was attempting to drag Matt Doorey down.
His tackle was labelled “unavoidable” but if you drop your weight on the back of a ballrunner “you’re in trouble”.
Alexander explained: “We had Luke Keary in here a couple of weeks ago and he said ‘I might do three or four of these a game’, where you are dragged by a bigger man and you’re holding on and you’re trying to keep your feet on the ground then one comes up off the ground as he slides down the back of his legs. That seems so tough a decision to be wearing 10 minutes for that.
“Ezra Mam is the one I think that’s almost unavoidable because the force of Matt Doorey – he’s dragging him backwards and I don’t know if Ezra makes a conscious decision to put both feet up on the ground.
“Whether it’s intentional or not, if you end up on the back of the legs of a player, you’re in trouble.
“There’s no way he does anything different there. It doesn’t matter what they do at training, Ezra Mam grabs a player around the waste and is pulled forward and dragged along. There isn’t anything he can do apart from let go – and that’s not happening.”
Ennis also issued a big warning to the NRL with multiple different tackles falling under the umbrella of a hip drop.
“The words the game will keep on throwing at us is ‘duty of care’. But I’ve been in that position a thousand times where you’re up against a person that’s far superior in terms of their physical strength than you,” Ennis said.
“If Ezra Mam comes out of the line and puts full contact into Matt Doorey and they play out the back, he gets penalised. He can’t make that decision.
“I think it’s completely different to where we started – and I know we use the Carrigan one with Jackson Hastings as the absolute extreme – but they’re all going under the umbrella now of ‘hip drop’ and they’re completely different tackles.
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“We won’t ever get rid of that. We can’t get rid of that in our game.”
Speaking in the post-match press conference Arthur said he believed all three tackles were “similar”.
“I’m not an expert on hip drops, but to me all three of them looked pretty similar and I know which one had the worst result,” Arthur said.
“If their feet are off the ground, and that’s what happened, then yeah, I don’t know, go and ask Reg (Campbell-Gillard).”
He was then asked if he thought Haas should be handed a suspension for the ugly tackle which injured Parramatta’s prop.
“Look that’s not my call, I’m not the expert on hip drops and if the tackle is a hip drop, yeah he should be charged,” Arthur said.
“The people that decide that, they will have to live with the decision they make but I do know we will be without Reg for a long time.
“My untrained eye, looking at all three tackles they look pretty similar to me.”
