NRL supercoach Wayne Bennett blames referees for hip drop tackle epidemic

Veteran NRL coach Wayne Bennett has called on referees to manage the hip-drop tackle out of the game and insists that it is not coached into players. 

The NRL has been grappling with the issue of hip-drop tackles, with Brisbane’s Payne Haas and Ezra Mam facing suspension after being charged with grade-two dangerous contact for hip-drop tackles in Friday night’s match against Parramatta. 

Bennett said that referees had a crucial role in determining when a tackle had been made and should ensure that the third man was kept out of the tackle as much as possible. 

‘Players are allowed to stand for too long going virtually nowhere and that just opens themselves up for that third man in,’ the veteran Dolphins coach told AAP.

‘Referees have got to be better at determining when a tackle has been made … and just say, ‘Play the ball’.

‘Keep that third guy out of it as much as they can because he is the one doing the damage.

‘We wouldn’t have as many penalties after a while. Players will get the message.’

Payne Haas escaped sanction on the field for this hip drop tackle on Reagan Campbell-Gillard that left the Parramatta forward hobbling

Ezra Mam was sin-binned for this ugly hip drop tackle and now faces a one-match suspension or two matches if he contests the charge

Bennett wants referees to take control of the situation and stamp out hip drop tackles in the NRL

He added that players were occasionally falling victim to hip drops in one-on-one situations, but that the hip-drop tackle had not previously been part of the game and had ‘come out of the blue.’ 

He emphasised that the hip-drop tackle was not being coached into players, but had seeped into their repertoire subconsciously.

‘This is one (tackle) I don’t think any coach coaches,’ he said.

‘It is more to do with the psyche of the player and maybe the team meetings and what the coaches want,’ Bennett said.

‘They want the player on the ground and they have kind of introduced a bit of a method of getting the player on the ground.

‘Players can certainly bend the rules a bit and … adjust to situations. That is where the hip-drop tackle has started … innocently and not deliberately to hurt people.

‘It is a crazy trend because I don’t believe it is being coached. It is just happening out there on the field.’

Bennett called for consistency in officiating, which he believed had all but removed the chicken-wing and cannonball tackles from the game. 

Haas will also face a one-match ban after the NRL’s Match Review Committee determined that he did have a case to answer for dangerous contact

The Broncos will be undermanned in their next clash with both Haas and Mam likely to spend at least one week on the sidelines

Haas’s tackle on Reagan Campbell-Gillard, which left the Parramatta prop with a suspected fractured hip, has laid bare the NRL’s inconsistencies on hip-drops. 

Haas received a grade-two dangerous contact charge for falling on the legs of Campbell-Gillard in a tackle that went unpunished in the match. 

Haas will miss one game with an early guilty plea, or two if he attempts to fight it at the judiciary and loses.

Campbell-Gillard was cleared of a hip fracture but is still facing an extended stint on the sidelines with a groin injury. 

The NRL’s bunker and match review committee disagreed on the controversial tackle style for the second time in 15 days, as Haas escaped any punishment from referee Ashley Klein in Brisbane’s 26-16 win over Parramatta.

Parramatta coach Brad Arthur expressed his frustration with the NRL’s inconsistent treatment of hip-drop tackles. 

He argued that all three tackles, including Haas’s, looked similar and that he knew which one had the worst result.