“Wrong footed”: Grant refuses to criticise officials over tripping penalty

Melbourne Storm captain Harry Grant has refused to criticise referee Grant Atkins or bunker official Ashley Klein for penalising him for a trip during the second half.

In a seeming return to previous rules, the two officials elected to go back a number of plays to penalise Grant after he was ruled to have tripped Ezra Mam during the 49th minute of the 2025 NRL Grand Final, which the Broncos would go on to win 26 points to 22 in a stunning second half comeback.

The Broncos five-eighth was uninjured by the incident, but the NRL recently said they'd only go back multiple tackles for serious acts of foul play.

Despite that, it's unclear whether trips, which are often overlooked and only result in fines, are included in that list of serious incidents.

Grant said the explanation he got was that it was a trip, and blamed the pace of the game for the incident, saying no one intentionally trips another player.

"He just said it was a trip. The game is so fast. Ezra Mam is dangerous, left foot right foot, you're coming across to make a tackle and get wrong-footed, you're going to have imbalance somewhere within your body," Grant said during the post-match press conference.

"For me, unfortunately, that's what it looked like. At the end of the day, that decision isn't from Grant [Atkins], it's from someone above him with replays and looks at it.

"I don't think there is any player, majority of the time, going out with intent to trip someone. Play it in fast motion and you'll see someone get wrong-footed. Ezra Mam is one of the best in the game as a running five-eighth, you don't know which way he is going, so that's probably more of what it was than [a trip], anyways."

The dummy half will learn whether he faces any type of sanction for the tip on Monday morning when the NRL's match review committee release their charge sheet from the decider, which could also feature charges for high tackles and dangerous contact against a number of players, including man of the match Reece Walsh, and Grant's teammate Trent Loiero who was sin binned late in the contest.