The Warriors and Manly reached the golden point in Auckland yesterday after Shaun Johnson attempted a two-point field goal, missing, but had his right leg impaled by Sea Eagles prop Josh Aloiai in his follow-through.
Johnson stayed down as the full-time siren sounded and the bunker ruled a penalty, with Johnson scoring the game-tying goal.
It was similar, although less violent, to an incident that saw South half Lachlan Ilias’s leg broken at the end of a NSW Cup match last week and Aloiai was handed a one-to-one suspension by the match review committee. two games.
Former Jillaro Karina Brown and former babysitter Billy Moore said on ABC Sport’s live radio coverage that the referees got it right.
“It’s the same thing when the head is sacrosanct; you just can’t hit the kicker when he’s in the air,” Moore said.
“You want players to think ‘I can have a great chance at this’ and not worry about getting a serious injury.”
On Channel Nine’s Sunday Footy Show, NRL Immortal andres johns he did not agree.
Johns, a strong advocate for protecting playmakers, called the contact an accident and did not believe it warranted a penalty.
“I’m all for protecting kickers and playmakers, I’m probably going too far, but it wasn’t a penalty,” the former Newcastle and Kangaroos halfback said.
“He’s competing. And when you compete hard, occasionally accidents happen. That was just an accident.”
Brad Fittler He said the league “needs to get this right” because the Ilias incident showed how bad things can go.
“It’s okay to be penalized for [accidents]”he said in response to Johns.
“They don’t penalize you simply for [malicious] things in the game. If you make a mistake, you can still be penalized and not hated. She made a mistake, she hit her leg. And you just can’t do it, it’s too dangerous.”