South Sydney was on Sunday morning weighing up legal advice from Nick Ghabar regarding a judicial challenge of Latrell Mitchell’s 1-2 game ban for hitting Sua Fa’alogo as he slipped into contact on Friday night.
Mitchell’s dangerous contact charge has the Rabbitohs resigned to an unsuccessful appeal though given the wider scope of the charge compared to a high tackle.
Privately, Souths officials are miffed that Isaiah Yeo was not charged at all for high contact on Manly’s Tom Trbojevic while he was falling in the Sea Eagles’ win over Penrith.
Both Anthony Seibold and Cleary said afterwards that the NRL had over-corrected in their officiating of high shots after multiple incidents went unpunished in round four.
A total of 27 players have been sin-binned for illegal shots since the governing body issued a reminder to its bunker officials to use the sin-bin for high tackle offences.
Penrith’s Scott Sorensen (2-3 week suspension) and Manly’s Siosiua Taukeiaho ($1000-$1500 fine) were both charged for high contact incidents on Saturday night.
Sorensen’s hit on Nathan Brown came as he braced for contact when the Sea Eagles prop came flying off a long kick-off run, while the bunker picked up Taukeiaho’s seemingly innocuous contact with Isaiah Papalii a minute after it occurred with no reaction from players or officials.
Asked if the sin-binnings were over the top, Seibold said: “I don’t think it was just tonight, I’ve watched all the games over the weekend, or most of them anyway.
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“I feel like it potentially just needs to be looked at because there’s some tackles that look very similar and some are getting sin-binned, and some aren’t getting sin-binned.
“It’s a really tough job for the referees, I’ve got to say.
“They’re only trying to officiate to the directives they’re given from above. It’s really difficult for them but I think there does needs to be some sort of correction or looking at it. But I don’t have the answer.”
The NRL declined to comment on Sunday.
