NRL head of football Graham Annesley has backed the match officials who made the decision to send Karl Lawton from the field for a dangerous throw on South Sydney Rabbitohs and New South Wales Blues lock Cameron Murray on Friday evening in Gosford.
The tackle, which came just eight minutes into the game, left the Sea Eagles with 12 players for the remainder of the clash as Lawton became the first player in 2022 to be sent off.
Lawton has since been slapped with a Grade 3 dangerous throw charge by the NRL's match review committee, with the Sea Eagles second rower and hooker accepting an early guilty plea which will see him suspended for four weeks before being able to return.
Despite comments from Channel 9's commentary team suggesting Lawton should have only been sin binned, Annesley backed the match officials team during his footy briefing on Monday afternoon, which was led by Grant Atkins on field and backed up by Chris Butler in the bunker.
“There’s no doubt that he didn’t intend for that tackle to finish the way it finished,” Annesley said.
“But it has the potential for catastrophic outcomes. So even though players don’t intend to do some of these things, the game’s got a responsibility a) to protect the players on the field and b) to ensure that these things are taken seriously enough that the players think about their actions.
“If there are technique issues involved, and I’m not suggesting there is in Karl’s instance, but if there were, players work on these things to try and make sure that they don’t happen again.
“We don’t want to see any of those sorts of tackles repeated in our game.”
Annesley also confirmed Jack Wighton's tackle - which was ruled Grade 2 and will see him suspended for two weeks - was right not to be sent from the field during Saturday's clash between the Canberra Raiders and New Zealand Warriors.
“It’s much more difficult for the match officials to quickly assess those types of tackles,” he said.
“In some cases, the match review committee will take a considerable amount of time to determine not only the contribution of the player who gets charged but also the contribution of anyone else who’s involved in the tackle.
“I have some sympathy for the match officials in trying to process all of that very quickly and come up with the right decision in terms of what action should be taken (on field).
“In relation to the Karl Lawton one, I think it was quite an easy decision for the match officials to make because he’s the only one involved in the tackle.”
Haumole Olakau'atu, returning from a suspension of his own, is likely to be the replacement when Manly confirm their team for Round 9 at 4pm (AEST) on Tuesday afternoon.
