Brisbane Broncos lock Patrick Carrigan has expressed his frustration at the Bunker after he was sent to the sin bin for a hip-drop tackle in his side’s 24-16 loss to the Storm.
The 25-year-old was given his marching orders in the 55th minute for a tackle on Nelson Asofa-Solomona and was visibly disappointed at the decision.
Speaking to Nine post-game, the lock expressed his disbelief at it being called a hip-drop.
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“Nelson is a big boy,” he said.
“I feel like he beat me on the outside shoulder and I was just making a tackle. I don’t think I even landed on him but I don’t know, the game’s trying to get it out of the game at the moment. I don’t really think it was a hip drop.”
“I hope the big fella’s alright. We’ll see what happens.”
Carrigan had the support of Nine’s commentators, too, with his Queensland coach Billy Slater highly critical of the incident.
“I think they got that totally wrong,” he said.
“That’s just momentum, swinging around the tackle.”
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NRL great Cameron Smith doubled down on the outrage.
“If Nelson doesn’t grab his ankle and he gets up and plays the ball, it is nothing,” he said.
“Hip drops, seriously, what are we coming to?”
Carrigan gives verdict on hip drop sin bin
Broncos coach Kevin Walters was confused in the post-match press conference but not willing to comment too strongly on the refereeing out of fear of a fine.
“He slid down his legs,” Walters said of the tackle.
“Definitely (we need to address it). You wouldn’t like to see that happen in a grand final, someone sin-binned for that. That’s what the NRL wants you to do now, is slide down the legs, and Patty did that.”
Fellow Broncos forward Kurt Capewell was equally confused.
“It all happened pretty quick, from what I remember he was sliding down the legs,” Capewell said.
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“It’s a contact sport, you get in some positions sometimes and it is accidental, but I think he was making a conscious effort to slide down the legs, which is a point of difference.”
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy also offered his support to the Australian representative.
“I think we’re very inconsistent with it, and I think Patty was unlucky go to to the sin-bin,” he said post-game.
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