Blues hooker Keeley Davis has stood by claims she was the victim of an eye-gouge in her team’s game one Origin victory on Thursday night.
Davis made the complaint alongside captain Isabelle Kelly in the 15th minute of the match, and said she was left shocked because “any time you get eye gouged I think it’s a surprise”.
“I just won’t say too much on that yet, I don’t know how much I can say,” Davis said. “Obviously, it’s going to have to go to the judiciary and things like that, so I’ll just leave it at that.”
But the NSW No. 9 didn’t back down on the allegation despite being “unsure at this moment” who she suspected the perpetrator was.
“I’ve never felt it in the game [before]. I felt an eye gouge [tonight],” she said.
NSW coach John Strange said Davis spoke to him about it after the match, and said he would leave it up to the judiciary to decide the outcome.
Keeley Davis in the Blues game one Origin victory on Thursday night.
“Keeley, I just spoke to her after there, she said she got eye gouged during the game,” Strange said.
“She wasn’t sure who, there was a couple in the tackle, so she told the ref, they put it on report, so they’ll have a look at it.”
Kelly said Davis didn’t let the incident rattle her despite it happening early in the match.
“I told any of the girls to come to me with anything if they need to, and that’s exactly what they did, put my players first, and we’ll see what comes of it,” Kelly said of the allegation.
Jubilant NSW players after their game one win.Credit: Getty Images
“I think if you know Keeley, you know that’s not going to rattle her. She’s a professional, Keels; she’s been great, I thought she was great tonight as well, I knew it wasn’t going to affect her.”
There is yet to be an eye-gouging incident in the NRLW, but the NRL has set a strong precedent for the behaviour in the past.
George Burgess was given a four-match ban for an eye gouge on Dallin Watene-Zelezniak back in 2018, while Hudson Young was whacked with a mammoth eight-game ban for an eye gouge on Adam Pompey in 2019.
Davis said it was important to move on after incidents like this happen in a match.
“Honestly, it’s like an error… You’ve got to be a goldfish, and I think the best players are goldfish about thing that they don’t want to remember and even good things,” Davis said.
“You just have to keep your focus on the next job, so whether it’s a good thing or a bad thing that’s just happened, you really just need to look at the next thing.”
After the match, Queensland coach Tahnee Norris said she didn’t yet know anything about the allegation or who it was levelled against.
Norris now faces a nervous wait for the judiciary charge sheet on Friday morning to see if one of her players will miss game two on May 15th for the incident.
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