NRL fans were left outraged after Dally M Medal favorite Jahrome Hughes had several votes deducted for ‘accidentally’ colliding with a referee.
In March, the Storm ‘reluctantly’ accepted an early plea to a grade two contrary conduct offense after Hughes appeared to collide with referee Chris Butler after the referee found himself positioned between the Storm runner and the center of the Warriors, Rocco Berry.
Even though his team beat the Warriors 30-26, the Storm vice-captain ultimately received a two-match suspension.
While Hughes has enjoyed a sensational season and is leading the charge to win this year’s Dally M Medal, the 29-year-old’s omission proved costly at the time, with Storm losing the following match against Newcastle.
Many were outraged by the punishment of Storm star and NRL great Michael Ennis, who declared his suspension “absolute stupidity” on Fox Sports.
Melbourne also confirmed that Hughes had approached Butler to apologize and claimed the action was “involuntary”.
Storm’s Jahrome Hughes and Molly Hughes were photographed at the Dally M Awards on Wednesday.
Hughes was docked six votes after he was suspended earlier this year after colliding with referee Chris Butler during a match.
Hughes received a two-match ban for the incident and would have been in pole position in the best and fairest medal race had it not been for the penalty.
It appears the incident may have also cost him some votes in the Dally M medal tally, as the Melbourne star scored 27 points between rounds 13 and 18, which should have put him in the clear lead to win the coveted best and over. fair. grant.
Hughes was docked six votes for pushing Butler and on Wednesday appeared to have pushed him down the leaderboard to win the best and fairest medal, behind Daly Cherry-Evans and James Tedesco.
It also left some fans on social media fuming, with some calling it “ridiculous.”
“Jahrome Hughes losing six votes in the Dally M for accidentally making contact with a referee might be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” said one on X (formerly Twitter).
“Man, if Jahrome Hughes doesn’t win the Dally M for running into the referee, this should be the last time we get this award,” another added.
‘He had no choice, it’s absolute stupidity (for the NRL to charge him). Let’s not overlook it because it’s absolute stupidity,” Ennis said on Fox League.
‘Rocco Berry was coming back inside, Hughes anticipates that, the referee gets in his field of vision, gets in his way.
‘Common sense says it’s not one of those moments where a player gets frustrated and puts his hand on the referee. That’s what we don’t want in our game, we don’t want referees to be touched when they don’t have to be, but that was just a complete accident by Jahrome Hughes.
The 29-year-old subsequently dropped to third place in the medal race after round 18.
Hughes’ suspension (pictured) had been criticized by many within the NRL, with Mick Ennis calling it “stupidity”.
“Common sense has to prevail, I hope they fight against it because he should never miss a week for that and the fact that he’s been charged is just absolute stupidity, it is, it’s absolutely ridiculous.”
Issuing a statement about the incident earlier this year, Melbourne wrote: “Jahrome has contacted referee Chris Butler to apologize and reinforce that his actions were unintentional.
‘We are disappointed that an unsuccessful grade challenge would have also resulted in a further week’s suspension. We recognize that there is a system in place to avoid court hearings but, in this case, we believe that the risk of penalty for contesting the charge is too high considering the circumstances of the incident.
“In the end, the threat of an additional week of suspension on top of our club’s bye next weekend was the overriding factor in our decision, but we don’t believe it was a fair outcome.”
