Source :- THE AGE NEWS
Api Koroisau is facing up to four weeks on the sidelines after being charged with a grade two dangerous contact charge.
The Wests Tigers skipper was placed on report and sin-binned for a hip-drop tackle on Canberra back-rower Noah Martin during Thursday night’s 33-14 triumph at Leichhardt Oval.
Koroisau was then penalised and put on report a second time for a lifting tackle on Morgan Smithies in the 53rd minute.
Tigers coach Benji Marshall argued Koroisau had nowhere else to go when completing the tackle on Martin, and when it came to the lifting tackle on Smithies, said: “If it was up to me, I probably would have challenged it [the penalty]. I didn’t think it was that bad.”
Martin was convinced he had just become the latest victim of a hip-drop tackle as he limped out of the inner-western Sydney venue with both ankles strapped.
“It was a hip-drop – I haven’t looked back at the tackle, but it was pretty painful,” Martin told this masthead.
“You’re not allowed hip-drop these days. He got both of them [ankles], so he did a pretty good job.
“I tried to play through it, but they got too sore – I tried to keep going for the boys, but it was too painful.”
Koroisau told this masthead about the Martin tackle as he left the ground: “I wasn’t trying to drop down or anything. We’ll wait and see what happens. Of course, I don’t [want to miss games] because we’re going so well at the moment, and I’d love to keep this momentum going. It is what it is.”
The 33-year-old had been fined on three separate occasions this season for dangerous contact.
If Koroisau accepts the early plea, he’ll be sidelined for three weeks. But if he unsuccessfully takes his case to the judiciary, the sentence would become four weeks.
The ban is also a blow for NSW coach Laurie Daley, who looks set to lose another genuine No. 9 option. Penrith’s Mitch Kenny suffered a broken leg last weekend in a win over the Dolphins.
Roosters pair Reece Robson and Connor Watson, as well as Cronulla’s Blakye Brailey, are now the leading candidates, with Daley expected to carry at least two hookers into Origin I on May 27.
Marshall was proud of his players for bouncing back following the loss to a patched-up Broncos five nights earlier, but could not bite his tongue when it came to a few of the decisions, including the Koroisau incidents.
“It’s probably not a good time, but who cares – the inconsistency with the refereeing is annoying me at the moment,” Marshall said after the game.
“I know we won, but some of the calls … it’s hard to understand. Even Api’s case with the sin-bin, I don’t know what he’s supposed to do in that situation. He’s making a cover tackle from behind, where he has to tackle his legs, and that’s where he’s going to end up.
“I don’t think it was intentional. He did his ten minutes, surely that’s enough.”
“I think the fans deserve some consistency around interpretations of the rules. We’re not getting it.”
