Just a couple of questions.
1) Would Sutton have sent Young off?
2) Would he have sin binned Radley?
I have thought for quite a while that Atkins is a bettter referee than most of the others, with maybe only Adam Gee being better.
I think these days, the on-field ref has an idea in his mind, but when the message from the bunker is "forceful contact to the head" and "arm extended" etc or "body off ground" and "lands on legs", the on field ref just follows nrl protocols and send them off/bin.
And that's how it should be.
If the protocols are wrong, thats a different story.
Im going to he controversial here and say that i agree with Robbo on the Radley hip drop. It wasnt. From what i recall, it wasnt anything like the traditional hip drop, where a defender "hangs off" the attacker and lets his body land on the legs of the attacker.
It was in the wet, he was in a joint tackle, and as a result, his collision with his own teamate resulted in him coming off the ground. I dont even recall seeing him land on the legs of the dogs player that badly. There are numerous times when a player punches through the lineand the defender lands on the attacker legs when tackling sideways or behind.
Perfect example is cover tackles (like Dearden) who are lauded for great tackles but have the same risk of injury in my book.
There are hip drops (usually 1 on 1) that are bad and there are accidental drops to the players legs. I know the NRL wants black and white interpretations but this is chalk and cheese
