Marritt charged for feet-first tackle

[Bond]

Well all I can say is about bloody time, hopefully they crack down on Billy Slater too, those tackles are plain dangerous!
And I still remember last year's preliminary final and that tackle....

http://www.foxsports.com.au/story/0,865 ... 14,00.html

South Sydney winger Nathan Merritt faces a one-week suspension for his attempted feet-first tackle on Parramatta's Joel Reddy last Friday.

Merritt was handed a dangerous conduct charge by the NRL match review committee on Monday and faces a one-week ban with an early guilty plea, but two weeks if found guilty at the judiciary.

Merritt unsuccessfully tried to stop Reddy from scoring the match-winning try by lunging his feet at the winger.

He was cautioned for the incident but referees' boss Robert Finch admitted the whistleblowers should have awarded an eight-point try to the Eels.

 

[Fozz]

Billy Slater must be laughing his arse off given how many times he's gotten away with it.

 

[Hitman]

Billy Slater must be laughing his arse off given how many times he's gotten away with it.

My thoughts exactly.

It's a dangerous practice and someone will get hurt sooner or later. If it gets taken away from the game, it can only be a good thing. Be interesting to see what happens and if it sets a precedent.

 

[Playboy Bunny]

I think he is lucky to only get one match.

It is a pretty dangerous thing to do. I've felt the consequences on studs in the skin and that wasn't nice. I wouldn't want it in my face or neck.

 

[Jeba]

Haha and QUEENSLANDER told us it was just a case of sour grapes when we didn't like Slater doing it.

 

[Black Philip]

WTF???? How the hell did Merritt get charged of this when that cocky, smarmy piece of shit Billy Slater does it CONSTANTLY and gets away with it??? What a load of bullshit!

 

[Clintos]

Yeah, the NRL made a specific rule against it this year because in previous years there was no rule to say it was illegal, and therefore couldn't do anything about it.

· Referee directives include yet another crackdown on grapple tackles and the use of sin-bin for repeated or serious offences. In addition, there will be more scrutiny on players who attempt to stop tries by leading with their feet or legs, with offenders facing the prospect of being charged with misconduct.

http://www.leagueunlimited.com/article.php?newsid=17275

 

[Je$ter]

WTF???? How the hell did Merritt get charged of this when that cocky, smarmy piece of shit Billy Slater does it CONSTANTLY and gets away with it??? What a load of bullshit!

Because that was 2008 this is 2009.

Billy Slater also started cancer. Jsut so youse can hate on him more.

 

[Hamm.0]

WTF???? How the hell did Merritt get charged of this when that cocky, smarmy piece of shit Billy Slater does it CONSTANTLY and gets away with it??? What a load of bullshit!

Because that was 2008 this is 2009.

Billy Slater also started cancer. Jsut so youse can hate on him more.

[icon_lol1. [icon_lol1. [icon_lol1.

 

[Bannermania]

WTF???? How the hell did Merritt get charged of this when that cocky, smarmy piece of shit Billy Slater does it CONSTANTLY and gets away with it??? What a load of bullshit!

Because that was 2008 this is 2009.

Billy Slater also started cancer. Jsut so youse can hate on him more.

Jade Goody would be pretty pissed off with him then.

 

[Kimlo]

They started the rule this season, slater hasn't done it this season, why would they punish slater?
Fact is merrit has done it after they have come out and made a rule specifically against it.

Grapples are being punished a lot this year as we've seen so far, it doesn't mean that the people who did it last year will be punished as well ... LOLZ

Fact is slater may be a grub (I don't think he really is, just competitive) but he doesn't really break the rules, although he may bend them.

 

[Coxy]

They haven't "made a rule", it's always been in the rules under section 15, 1a trips, kicks or strikes another player.

(That's from a friend who's a Q-Cup touch judge/ref up in Rockhampton).

 

[Black Philip]

WTF???? How the hell did Merritt get charged of this when that cocky, smarmy piece of shit Billy Slater does it CONSTANTLY and gets away with it??? What a load of bullshit!

Because that was 2008 this is 2009.

Billy Slater also started cancer. Jsut so youse can hate on him more.

If it was Brett Stewart doing it, all the closet storm fans on here would be calling for his head. But there is nothing wrong with Slater doing it.

What a load of sh*t.

 

[QUEENSLANDER]

Haha and QUEENSLANDER told us it was just a case of sour grapes when we didn't like Slater doing it.

It was, ur just happy you now have something that you can pretend backs up ur argument [icon_wink

 

[OXY-351]

They started the rule this season, slater hasn't done it this season, why would they punish slater?

BS, slater always leads with the knees/feet when trying to save tries. I'm pretty sure he lead with the knees on Friday night when Izzy was trying to score in the corner

 

[Jeba]

Haha and QUEENSLANDER told us it was just a case of sour grapes when we didn't like Slater doing it.

It was, ur just happy you now have something that you can pretend backs up ur argument [icon_wink

OK, Cameron Smith does a grapple tackle on Sam Thaiday. We all hate it. You think it's just us having sour grapes. Judiciary suspends Smith for 2 weeks.

Slater does a feet first tackle, we don't like it. You think it's just us having sour grapes. NRL does nothing about it due to there being no rule at the time, but later realises that it is in fact dangerous play, so puts the foot down and suspends Merritt.

So the NRL agrees with most of both of these issues.

Wanker.

 

[The Brizz]

It could be argued that Slater was the smartest fullback in the game, he was saving tries no other fullback could by using his pace and technique to get his feet under the football. It may have been dangerous but no one got hurt and sanity has now prevailed and it is banned and he hasn't done it this year because he is smarter than that.

What Cameron Smith did to Thaiday was no better or worse than about 50 grapples earlier in the season that went unpunished from players at many teams. I applaud the crack down on the grapple tackle this year but what happened to Cameron Smith AND ONLY Cameron Smith last year was a joke.

Nothing you have posted Jeb proves anything that QLD'er or others have said wrong. Clearly your sig demonstrates the person here with the biggest agenda.

 

[Jeba]

It could be argued that Slater was the smartest fullback in the game, he was saving tries no other fullback could by using his pace and technique to get his feet under the football. It may have been dangerous but no one got hurt and sanity has now prevailed and it is banned and he hasn't done it this year because he is smarter than that.

What Cameron Smith did to Thaiday was no better or worse than about 50 grapples earlier in the season that went unpunished from players at many teams. I applaud the crack down on the grapple tackle this year but what happened to Cameron Smith AND ONLY Cameron Smith last year was a joke.

Nothing you have posted Jeb proves anything that QLD'er or others have said wrong. Clearly your sig demonstrates the person here with the biggest agenda.

Meh, everyone knows my agenda anyway.

And I knew QLDer's little buddy would be jumping on here to defend him [icon_wink

No doubt it was smart play by Slater at the time, doesn't mean we shouldn't be allowed to have the opinion that that style of tackle should be banned. Would've said the same thing if it was Slater, Hunt, Gidley, Merritt, Wesser, Patten, Stewart etc etc who did it first.

Cameron Smith's grapple was different to others in the fact that he physically wrapped his hands around Thaiday's neck and gave it a couple of yanks in a very uncomfortable direction. It looked like he was trying to rip his head off.