- It was a sin at the end of the game against the Bulldogs.
- The coach said he was goaded into action.
- He was lucky to escape a ban for striking
Newcastle Knights prop Jacob Saifiti is lucky to have avoided suspension after an all-time brain blackout in his club’s 32-2 defeat to the Bulldogs on Friday, in which he head-butted series to Reed Mahoney.
Although this is Saifiti’s second offence, he will avoid suspension if he accepts a $3,000 fine from the NRL judiciary for an early guilty plea. If he contests and loses, he faces a two-match suspension.
Bulldogs rake Reed Mahoney is known for irritating his opponents, despite his small stature at 5-foot-9.
‘It’s not like you won’t know that guy is going to be involved in this. He does it every week,” Newcastle manager Adam O’Brien said after the game.
“We need to be better there.”
Mahoney’s tactics provoked Saifiti in the final minute of the match, resulting in the header.
Bulldogs hooker Reed Mahoney is known for being a pest on the field and had words with Newcastle prop Jacob Saifiti late in the game.
Saifiti took the bait and headbutted Mahoney, being condemned for his trouble but escaping a suspension from the NRL Match Review Committee.
When Mahoney attempted to score near the try line, a fight ensued in which a referee intervened:
‘Guys guys guys. Come on. One minute left. Let’s go away.’ he said.
But Saifiti was seeing the red mist and after exchanging words with the Bulldogs hooker he retaliated with a header.
Commentator Dan Ginnane said: ‘Oooooh! Jacob, Jacob, you can’t do that. You can’t do that! Oh my God. One of the most unnecessary actions of the year.
“Reed Mahoney has gotten into the minds of the Newcastle Knights and he’s going to cost Jacob Saifiti a bucket of rubbish here… and he may have to worry a bit overnight.”
Fellow commentator Cooper Cronk said: “With one minute left, Saifiti has let his team down with a bad, very bad decision.”
‘And the worst is what could come of it. Obviously there wasn’t much contact, but still.
Mahoney had a previous altercation with Newcastle’s Jack Hetherington in April, receiving a yellow card for goading the forward. He also clashed with Alex Seyfarth of Wests Tigers the following week.
Mahoney was happy to break Newcastle’s four-game winning streak and keep the Bulldogs’ finals hopes alive.
Newcastle coach Adam O’Brien said his players had to be better and not take the bait
When asked about the incident with Saifiti, Mahoney said: “I’m not sure. We’ll enjoy the win and come back on Monday.
“We have a big game at half-time so we’ll be looking forward to it.”
O’Brien felt his men had lost some mental acuity after a layoff the previous week and became distracted by the adulation they received after four straight victories.
“The thing for now is we have to make sure we go into (the Melbourne Storm) with a really good mentality, that we can play well and we need to prepare and train that way,” he said.
‘We probably need to batten down the hatches and get off social media and not read too much into what you guys are going to write. Maybe we were reading too much into how well we were doing. So now we will look inward and try to fix it.”