POST GAME 2026 State of Origin

Big Del said:
T


Didn`t tuck his arm though ....
Didn`t run at full pace across the field before hitting Oates .
Ponga had more time and space to change his body position .

Not apples and apples bro .
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It's still a shoulder charge, he was never looking to wrap the arm around Oates.

How does Ponga have more time and space when he's supposedly running full pace? Can't have one or the other. Drinkwater had enough time to adjust got beaten with foot-work and tries to compensate by hitting a shoulder charge where he leaves his feet. He does more damage to a bigger player to boot.

I agree it's not apples to apples, Drinkwater's is worse and only a sin bin.
 
Cult said:
Teams shouldn’t play any longer than 10 minutes without 13 players. The game is already too fast. If someone gets sent off you may as well just forfeit the game because the result has already been given
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This 100%. You wouldn’t know it from the celebrations but it is actually embarrassing and pretty pathetic that it took an incredible catch in the dying minute to win it when they had 23 minutes against 12 men.
 
Kaylin came from a distance , chose to tuck his arm .
Drinkwater was in a group of players and within a metre of Oates . Lot`s more moving parts .
Drinkwater at close quarters with much less reaction time .

So by your explanation . If he`s running full pace that is his only option ?

Like I have said more than once re this incident . Kaylin`s tackling technique is highly flawed . Head goes behind the player you want to tackle not in front .
It should have been a right shoulder tackle not the left .


Drinkwater at close quarters with much less reaction time .

Both bad . But very different .
 
Big Del said:
Kaylin came from a distance , chose to tuck his arm .
Drinkwater was in a group of players and with a metre of Oates . Lot`s more moving parts .
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Drinkwater had a similar time frame to make his tackle and chose to make a shoulder charge where he leaves his feet. Drinkwater has no other defenders on Oates to contend with.

Ponga does not come at 'full pace' does not leave his feet and has to contend not only with Koula falling but also Walker swinging in the tackle.

Want to talk about full pace/full force look at Latrell on Manu.

Breaks his eye socket.

Only 10 in the bin.

Who was the official again?

Tucking the arm isn't the only element of a shoulder charge. Both caused more damage, both received a lesser penalty on field from the same official.
 
Big Pete said:
As BroncsFan said, if you change it and Toia knocks Cleary into the 22nd century and only gets ejected the pendulum swings the other way.

There was nothing wrong with the rule just the application.

Has anyone seen a tackle like Pongas result in a send off?

I remember this:



Leaves his feet, breaks Oates' jaw.

Sin Bin.
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I remember this being way worse than it was. Should have been a penalty try though.
 
Cult said:
I think the fans are already being punished enough for watching and if they send off players in this version of the game they’re punishing us more. Furthermore, players don’t want to miss 6 weeks for launching at someone’s head and injuring a player intentionally should have internal consequences from other players as well.

Ideally nobody would do anything so bad to get sent off, but if you’re going to back your refs for choosing this option (which the NRL has done) this is now the new norm and other things need to change to fix it.
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That's the point of a send off though... it's meant to be an act that is so heinous that you have effectively cost your team the game and you are inevitably spending many weeks on the sideline.

Changing it to an ejection is basically normalising send offs... but it is not there to be normalised, they are there for exceptional circumstances.

The current punishment for a send off is that you've basically cost your team the game and spending a long time on the sideline... you start changing that interpretation and you will start to see more Suaalii torpedos instead of less.

What Ponga did was not exceptional... as evidenced by the grade 2, because there have been many grade 2's this year, but not many send offs.

NRL have done the stupid act of doubling down, because they are effectively creating a precedent from Klown's incompetence.

The next time there's a shoulder to the head in an NRL game, the media will be blowing up if they're not sent off.
 
We should be happy to get Klein for the 2nd game tbh.

Yes he was diabolically, again, and wanted to be the main attraction, again, but the nrl will want a 3rd game and he might have some qld-leaning "involvement" to balance it out
 
Riccio reporting that Klein will be the referee for game 2. saying that he "only needs to avoid a howler or major controversy over the next two weekends of NRL to miss out on being appointed for Origin II on June 17 at Melbourne’s famous cricket ground."
 
Lockysillegitimatechild said:
We should be happy to get Klein for the 2nd game tbh.

Yes he was diabolically, again, and wanted to be the main attraction, again, but the nrl will want a 3rd game and he might have some qld-leaning "involvement" to balance it out
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And I will add. It is still absolutely insane that he is going to be. The optics on it are absolutely shocking for the nrl (much like gee or Klein being involved in our games the week after "questionable" games against us). Rewarded for a poor game, again. Like yes, you can debate decisions, but when a ref us getting talked about as much as the game itself its a poor game, no matter the scenario. They should be invisible, thats the sign of a great game.
 
Big Pete said:
Drinkwater had a similar time frame to make his tackle and chose to make a shoulder charge where he leaves his feet. Drinkwater has no other defenders on Oates to contend with.

Ponga does not come at 'full pace' does not leave his feet and has to contend not only with Koula falling but also Walker swinging in the tackle.

Want to talk about full pace/full force look at Latrell on Manu.

Breaks his eye socket.

Only 10 in the bin.

Who was the official again?

Tucking the arm isn't the only element of a shoulder charge. Both caused more damage, both received a lesser penalty on field from the same official.
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For context sake .
We are talking about an incident this week . Not foul play that happened years ago .
 
I’m curious what metric, other than experience, do they decide Klein is the best ref? Do they comprehensively review matches and judge each decision and metrics like the 10m and ruck speed? Or is it just the vibe?
 
BroncsFan said:
My point was mainly about the grading... I dont really care about him being fined or suspended.

Moreso that the ref deemed the tackle on the field to be so bad and dangerous that it warranted being sent off... and yet the MRC came in with a grade 2.

Suaalii's torpedo send off was graded as reckless, which is effectively grade 4 up... and yet the media put up a bigger fight about that one not being a send off.

Meanwhile Ponga gets sent and it's graded like a ton of the illegal tackles that have already occurred this year... and there havent been an equivalent amount of send offs in the NRL this year.

The send off was the wrong call and yet media gaslight and talk as if it was correct and how could anyone argue.
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Yeah it frustrates the hell out of me how it’s run like this.
 
BroncsFan said:
That's the point of a send off though... it's meant to be an act that is so heinous that you have effectively cost your team the game and you are inevitably spending many weeks on the sideline.

Changing it to an ejection is basically normalising send offs... but it is not there to be normalised, they are there for exceptional circumstances.

The current punishment for a send off is that you've basically cost your team the game and spending a long time on the sideline... you start changing that interpretation and you will start to see more Suaalii torpedos instead of less.

What Ponga did was not exceptional... as evidenced by the grade 2, because there have been many grade 2's this year, but not many send offs.

NRL have done the stupid act of doubling down, because they are effectively creating a precedent from Klown's incompetence.

The next time there's a shoulder to the head in an NRL game, the media will be blowing up if they're not sent off.
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It’ll be a send off for a few weeks to keep up appearances then back to normal.
 
Lockysillegitimatechild said:
And I will add. It is still absolutely insane that he is going to be. The optics on it are absolutely shocking for the nrl (much like gee or Klein being involved in our games the week after "questionable" games against us). Rewarded for a poor game, again. Like yes, you can debate decisions, but when a ref is getting talked about as much as the game itself its a poor game, no matter the scenario. They should be invisible, thats the sign of a great game.
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It was shaping up as the best reffed game in a long time. Then Klein.
 
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