{"id":493834,"date":"2026-03-05T22:56:29","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T23:56:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=493834"},"modified":"2026-03-06T00:21:36","modified_gmt":"2026-03-06T00:21:36","slug":"big-call-on-eels-stars-ban-after-controversial-sin-bin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=493834","title":{"rendered":"Big call on Eels star's ban after controversial sin bin"},"content":{"rendered":"

P\ufeffarramatta<\/a> forward J'maine Hopgood has been hit with what will be a controversial ban by the NRL's match review committee.<\/p>\n

Hopgood can accept a one-game suspension for an incident the MRC judged a grade two careless high tackle.<\/p>\n

It happened when Storm<\/a> forward Alec MacDonald fell into Hopgood's shoulder early in Thursday night's game at AAMI Park<\/a>, leaving MacDonald concussed and out for the rest of the game.\ufeff<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Eels icon shuts down revenge theory behind Lomax collapse\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE\ufeff:<\/strong> Eels shellshocked as Storm rack up 52 in thumping<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Former teammates clash as Swans rout Blues at SCG<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

It will no doubt cause a stir given Hopgood did little wrong, and actually got hit in the head himself.\ufeff<\/p>\n

On-field referee Todd Smith claimed it was "direct shoulder contact to the head"\ufeff and the Bunker official agreed, sending Hopgood to the bin.<\/p>\n

Replays seemed to show it was merely a head clash.\ufeff<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"What about his head?" Eels captain Mitchell Moses was heard asking, but Smith wanted none of it.<\/p>\n

NRL legends Andrew Johns and Billy Slater agreed Hopgood had done nothing wrong.\ufeff<\/p>\n

"He was out before he hit the ground, MacDonald," Johns said on Nine.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"\ufeffIt's a head clash… I think the first contact is head on head.<\/p>\n

"He is standing quite tall, \ufeffHopgood, and if anything it's the left-foot step of MacDonald (that results in the contact).<\/p>\n

"It's accidental."\ufeff<\/p>\n

Storm icon Slater agreed.<\/p>\n

\"Simonsson<\/p>\n

"You can see J'maine Hopgood's head shake with the contact," Slater said.<\/p>\n

It once again calls the consistency of the Bunker process and match review committee into question after Bulldogs captain Stephen Crichton last week avoided the bin and a charge despite his shoulder colliding with the head of Dragons rookie Setu Tu in Vegas.<\/p>\n

Hopgood's was the only charge to stem from the game on Thursday.<\/p>\n

That's despite his teammate Brian Kelly being penalised for a high tackle in the second half which Fox League commentator Andrew Voss suggested was worse than what Hopgood did.<\/p>\n

Kelly was penalised but wasn't sin binned or charged over the incident.\ufeff<\/p>\n

Hopgood will miss next week's trip to Brisbane unless he can fight the charge at the NRL judiciary and win.<\/p>\n

He may have a case to downgrade it to a grade one, which would wipe the suspension, after Penrith halfback Nathan Cleary did just that following a pre-season charge.\ufeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

P\ufeffarramatta forward J'maine Hopgood has been hit with what will be a controversial ban by the NRL's match review committee. Hopgood can accept a one-game […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":493836,"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\/493834"}],"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=493834"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493834\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":493839,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493834\/revisions\/493839"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/493836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=493834"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=493834"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=493834"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}