{"id":286039,"date":"2023-04-14T23:04:27","date_gmt":"2023-04-14T23:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=286039"},"modified":"2023-04-15T15:23:25","modified_gmt":"2023-04-15T15:23:25","slug":"legends-clash-over-nrls-latest-hip-drop-furore","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=286039","title":{"rendered":"Legends clash over NRL's latest hip drop furore"},"content":{"rendered":"

League greats Cameron Smith<\/a> and Brad Fittler<\/a> have locked horns over yet another contentious hip drop tackle in the Storm's brutal clash against the Sea Eagles.<\/p>\n

The incident in question occurred in the second half of Manly's 18-8 win at Brookvale<\/a>, when Storm\ufeff backrower Trent Loeiro tackled his opposite number Haumole Olakau'atu from behind.<\/p>\n

Loeiro grabbed \ufeffOlakau'atu's hips and dropped towards the turf, but made minimal contact with the Manly youngster's legs while doing so. Nevertheless, referee Adam Gee penalised the Storm and placed Loeiro on report, but did not send him to the sin bin due to the tackle being classed as careless rather than reckless.<\/p>\n

AS IT HAPPENED:<\/strong> Manly prevails in 'brutal' clash with Storm\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: \ufeff<\/strong>Legend stunned by monster hit on Olam<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> \ufeff'Six-minute test' that revived Ponga's NRL dream<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Olakau'atu was not seriously injured in the play and was able to run out the remainder of the match unencumbered.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"Trent<\/p>\n

Following the match, Fittler argued that the tackle was a clear example of a hip drop, and said clubs needed to coach it out of players, calling it an instinctive play.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffThat's a hip drop. He had him by the hips\ufeff and he dropped his body weight, that's a hip drop," he said on Nine's NRL coverage.<\/p>\n

"It wasn't as bad as others (but) if he lands on his legs then all of a sudden you can do some real damage.<\/p>\n

"What they (clubs) need to do, they need to actually train a different way because \ufeffquite obvious that it's actually instinct.<\/p>\n

\"Loiero\u00a0on<\/p>\n

"A lot of these tackles are in really tight moments where people are breaking free, so the natural instinct is to grab them by their hips and drop the body weight.<\/p>\n

"Clubs need to start searching for a different way to make their tackles."<\/p>\n

Former Storm captain Cameron Smith disagreed, saying the ongoing hysteria surrounding hip drop tackles had caused people around the league to be "jumping at shadows".<\/p>\n

"\ufeffHe barely grazes the left leg of Olakau'atu," he told Nine.<\/p>\n

"I just think that action, that looked very spectacular when it happened in fast motion, particularly with Harry Grant coming in and getting bent over.<\/p>\n

\"NRL<\/p>\n

"Are we refereeing our game on optics or exactly what happens?<\/p>\n

"I completely understand when someone drops their backside or their hip into the back of the legs, but Loeiro there, he's just holding on, he lowers his weight down, but never at any stage does he put weight into the back of Olakau'atu's legs.<\/p>\n

"I just think at the moment it's a hot topic in our game \ufeffand particularly with the referees, they're trying to keep up with it all and I just think we're jumping at shadows."<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Despite Smith's argument, his former Origin teammate Johnathan Thurston said players needed to protect each other better during games.<\/p>\n

\ufeff"Players need to take better duty of care," he said.<\/p>\n

"\ufeffWe want to eradicate it out of our game because it's starting to cause a lot of injuries as well and players are running the risk of missing weeks. Just get it out of the game."<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

League greats Cameron Smith and Brad Fittler have locked horns over yet another contentious hip drop tackle in the Storm's brutal clash against the Sea […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286039"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=286039"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286039\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286041,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/286039\/revisions\/286041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=286039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=286039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=286039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}