The NRL have admitted Melbourne Storm prop Nelson Asofa-Solomona should have been sin binned and suspended for his swinging arm high tackle on Makahesi Makatoa.
The hit, which came midway through the second half, saw Makatoa held in a two man tackle, before Asofa-Solomona made direct contact with the side of the Parramatta prop's head.
. @BuzzRothfield @DarcieMcDonald @brentread_7 @phillutton78 @ScottBaileyAAP could any of you give ANY explanation as to how NAS escaped from this atrocious act with just a fine? Knowing it was preceded with aggro between the two and intent was apparent?pic.twitter.com/e90omGwgXw
— Dr Brad Robinson (@DrBradRobinson) March 27, 2022
Despite earlier sin bins during the weekend to both Jaydn Su'a of the St George Illawarra Dragons and Jesse Ramien of the Cronulla Sharks, Asofa-Solomona was allowed to stay on the field.
Maybe more bafflingly, the NRL's match review committee then found that it would only constitute a Grade 1 offence, allowing the Storm prop to escape with a fine rather than a suspension, as Su'a faced for his Grade 2 offence on Thursday night.
Annesley, speaking at his weekly briefing, told reporters that the decision was wrong, while he also said the NRL disagreed with the decision to not suspend Asofa-Solomona.
โOur view of this particular incident is that we think the referee should have put Nelson in the sin bin for the incident and we are confident that the match review committee has been through the right process, that they have considered all the right factors but we donโt think they have placed enough emphasis on the the degree of force,โ Annesley said.
โThey have assessed the level of force as low to moderate, in management we are of the view that the level of force was more than that.
โWe think that level of force was enough to push the charge into the grade two category.
โIn this particular instance, we feel the circumstance of the tackle should have warranted a Grade 2 charge. The match review felt a grade one for the reasons they have indicated. We disagree with them on this account."
The match review committee have defended their position, suggesting Makatoa's drop in height was what caused the high tackle and ultimately, lower grading.
The Melbourne prop will now be free to play during Round 4 when the Storm host the Bulldogs on Sunday afternoon.