Rugby league icon Paul Vautin has been left shaking his head after an incident that showed the NRL has lost its way.
The Queensland cult hero was on Thursday night left bristling after watching on as Panthers forward James Fisher-Harris was put on report for a bone-rattling hit on Broncos star Kotoni Staggs.
Fisher-Harris’ tackle was one of many controversial moments in the Suncorp Stadium slugfest, where the Panthers walked away with a 15-4 victory.
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The referees and match officials continued to be a big talking point to emerge from the match after five tries were disallowed.
However, the moment that angered Vautin the most was when Fisher-Harris was penalised for a textbook tackle that jolted Staggs during the first half.
With Staggs being held up in a tackle by two Penrith players, Fisher-Harris darted in to hit the Broncos centre under the ribs, knocking all four of them to the ground.
Broncos star Jordan Riki raced in to drag Fisher-Harris away from Staggs, triggering a brief melee which fizzled out into nothing.
When the dust cleared Riki was given a talking to by the referee and Fisher-Harris was put on report with the referee citing “unnecessary forceful contact”.
Vautin did not hide his frustration while commentating on Channel 9.
“So it’s unnecessary forceful contact up into the ribs. So now we’re trying to take the physicality out of the game,” he said.
“For 120 years – or whatever it is – that’s been fair game. The bloke is standing up and the coach is saying, ‘If you see a bloke standing there then you get him. You get him in the ribs’. Now it’s unnecessary forceful contact. That will do me.”
The referee’s decision appeared to be well off the mark with the ‘Third Man In’ rule only applying to tackles made at the legs.
The rules state: “Regardless of the point of impact, a player can still be penalised for any ‘forceful, dangerous or unnecessary contact’ at the legs that involves an unacceptable risk of injury to the player in possession”.
Fox League commentator Dan Ginane was more interested in the Broncos continuing to go after Fisher-Harris throughout the frenzied first half.
“There is no doubt these Broncos have made it a mission to annoy James Fisher-Harris,” he said.
“They’ve been after him since the first hit up of the game.”
There was more confusion and controversy later in the match in a bizarre moment where referee Adam Gee told Bunker reviewer Ashley Klein to re-review a potential Broncos try.
A kick from halfback Jock Madden in the 63rd minute went up and the Broncos’ Reece Walsh and Staggs were the first to the ball as the centre came down and appeared to score a try, which would have made it 14-8, or 14-10 with the conversion.
But on the replay, it appeared that Walsh had eyes only for the Panthers’ Tyrone Peachey before turning in the air to face the ball.
However, the Bunker initially ruled that Walsh was “contesting the ball”.
Ginnane said: “Players have mastered the art of taking out opposition players while pretending to have a look at the ball.”
But while it appeared Klein would only be looking at the grounding, Gee’s voice came over the mic saying: “It doesn’t look right to me Ash.”
Klein then said he would check if Walsh had jumped early.
“I think the referee has interfered with the Bunker,” Ginnane said.
”Did you hear that? Adam Gee looking at the big screen says I’m not satisfied with this decision.”
Klein then ruled Walsh only had eyes for Peachey, ruling no try.
“I like that,” Cooper Cronk said. “I like the fact Adam Gee has called out the Bunker after viewing the video replay at the ground.”
Ginnane said: “It doesn’t matter how we got there but we got the right decision.”
However, the fans weren’t so happy, chanting “bulls***”.