{"id":303530,"date":"2023-06-03T08:44:21","date_gmt":"2023-06-03T08:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=303530"},"modified":"2023-06-03T08:58:03","modified_gmt":"2023-06-03T08:58:03","slug":"weird-greats-baffled-as-hip-drop-drama-erupts-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=303530","title":{"rendered":"'Weird': Greats baffled as hip-drop drama erupts again"},"content":{"rendered":"

A couple of rugby league legends were left baffled when Dolphins<\/a> centre Euan Aitken escaped a penalty of any kind after appearing to perform a hip-drop tackle on Warriors<\/a> winger Dallin Watene-Zelezniak on Saturday.<\/p>\n

It looked as though Aitken cut Watene-Zelezniak down with a hip-drop tackle in the Warriors' clash with the Dolphins in Auckland, won by the New Zealand outfit 30-18, but referee Grant Atkins neither blew a penalty nor sent the Dolphins star from the field.\ufeff<\/p>\n

In general terms, a hip-drop tackle is constituted by a defender gripping the ball-carrier, swivelling, dropping their hips\ufeff and landing their weight on the lower half of the player's body. The tackle can trap one or both of the ball-carrier's legs, causing serious injury.\ufeff<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Djokovic blasts 'disrespectful' Roland-Garros fans\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Aussie gun's amazing feat, champ's world record demolition\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Explosive Hawthorn twist 'cuts deep', says Lewis\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The NRL has cracked down on hip-drop tackles this season, showing little hesitation in sin-binning players and handing out heavy suspensions.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Speaking at half-time of the Warriors' match against the Dolphins, Cooper Cronk said the referee's decision to not penalise Aitkens was "a little bit weird".\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I think the commentators were a little perplexed by it and I'm perplexed," Crook said on the Fox League coverage.<\/p>\n

"DWZ has got momentum, he's gone through the tackle. Aitken has lost the tackle, turned around, lost feet.<\/p>\n

"I'm not sure where that sits."<\/p>\n

Mal Meninga was also astounded by the referee's decision.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I think it's a hip-drop," said the rugby league Immortal on the Fox League broadcast.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"I think he'll be charged and (receive) some sort of penalty on that.<\/p>\n

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

"He quite easily could have dropped his hands. He could have quite easily wrapped his arms around the lower part of the legs.<\/p>\n

"That's a definite hip-drop."<\/p>\n

Cronk said Aitken should have spent 10 minutes off the field.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"I think it's a sin-bin," said the Storm and Roosters champion.<\/p>\n

"DWZ, because he's not injured as much, played on, which is good.<\/p>\n

"But from what we've been used to, that's a sin-bin."<\/p>\n

The Warriors only led 6-4 at half-time but dominated after the break, running in four tries to the visitors' one.<\/p>\n

The round 14 match saw Shaun Johnson and Watene-Zelezniak bag a double each as Luke Metcalf crossed for a try of his own, while Tesi Niu and Jamayne Isaako scored tries for the Dolphins.<\/p>\n

The fixture marked the Dolphins' first match outside Australia.<\/p>\n

The Warriors will meet the Raiders in Canberra next Friday night, while the Dolphins will face \ufeffthe Manly Sea Eagles at Brookvale Oval on the same night.<\/p>\n

\ufeffFor 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>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of rugby league legends were left baffled when Dolphins centre Euan Aitken escaped a penalty of any kind after appearing to perform a […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":303532,"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\/303530"}],"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=303530"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303530\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":303533,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303530\/revisions\/303533"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/303532"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=303530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=303530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=303530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}