{"id":69497,"date":"2021-05-10T13:16:52","date_gmt":"2021-05-10T13:16:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=69497"},"modified":"2021-05-10T21:01:47","modified_gmt":"2021-05-10T21:01:47","slug":"freddy-gal-lock-horns-over-nrls-duty-of-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=69497","title":{"rendered":"Freddy, Gal lock horns over NRL's 'duty of care'"},"content":{"rendered":"

League legends Brad Fittler and Paul Gallen have gone head-to-head over Marata Niukore's high shot on James Tedesco<\/a> during the Roosters' controversial loss to the Eels.<\/p>\n

Niukore faces a three-game ban for a grade two careless high tackle on the Roosters superstar.<\/a> He can escape with a two-game suspension with an early guilty plea.<\/p>\n

His shot alongside teammate Dylan Brown, who slid in with knees on Drew Hutchison seconds later, sending the Rooster to hospital with a punctured lung and fractured rib, was the focal point of the night amid an officiating blunder that saw neither player sent to the bin.<\/a><\/p>\n

\"James<\/p>\n

Fittler was up in arms over the incident and argued the NRL needed to have a conversation around tackling techniques if the game wanted to remain relevant. Gallen was less than impressed.<\/p>\n

FITTLER:<\/strong> "The Niukore one, we've got to stop making excuses for them. Our best player in the world has now, in his last two games, he's ran one way and got knocked out, he's ran another way and should have got knocked out. We've got stop making excuses for allowing people to hit the heads of other players."<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

GALLEN:<\/strong> "Look at his running style. He's falling, Freddy."<\/p>\n

FITTLER:<\/strong> "I don't care, mate, we've got to change it. We've got to start watching it through different peoples' eyes. We can't keep watching it through ex-players' eyes, we've got to watch it through the eyes of a parent."<\/p>\n

GALLEN:<\/strong> "But we know what's going on."<\/p>\n

FITTLER:<\/strong> "Mate, he stands his ground and just launches at him."<\/p>\n

GALLEN:<\/strong> "He didn't launch, he stood his ground."<\/p>\n

FITTLER:<\/strong> "Show that shot again, he stands there and launches."<\/p>\n

GALLEN:<\/strong> "What else could he have done?"<\/p>\n

\"Freddy<\/p>\n

FITTLER:<\/strong> "Mate, he could stand there and open his arms and tackle. We've got to change our view. We've got to stop allowing that to happen. He's our best player and he's been belted twice now straight across his head."<\/p>\n

GALLEN:<\/strong> "His height has gone from here to here, it happens in a split second."<\/p>\n

FITTLER:<\/strong> "I don't like seeing our best player in the game, from blokes just coming in and launching at him, coming in pretty aggressive. When you're in that situation, you almost need to take a duty of care. He's let go of the ball. In both situations, In the past two games, you need to take a duty of care, if he's coming into the line \u2013 we need to look after our best player mate."<\/p>\n

GALLEN:<\/strong> "His height has dropped Freddy, that's the thing. He's totally dropped."<\/p>\n

FITTLER:<\/strong> "I understand he's dropped, but I think at some stage we need to change our dialogue. They've come to watch James Tedesco play, he's a big asset to the game, and now he's just getting wiped out week in, week out."<\/p>\n

GALLEN:<\/strong> "But I don't think it's intentional. They're not going out to intentionally wipe him out."<\/p>\n

FITTLER:<\/strong> "Both the plays were illegal."<\/p>\n

GALLEN:<\/strong> "And they've both been charged."<\/p>\n

FITTLER:<\/strong> "Well, maybe not charged enough. Because we need to make sure people start practicing how can we tackle a James Tedesco or a Sam Walker, or a George Williams or Matt Moylan. How are we going to stop these blokes from getting smashed around the head all the times."<\/p>\n

GALLEN:<\/strong> "I thought there'd be no argument because Gus isn't here tonight."<\/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<\/em><\/strong> clicking here!<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

League legends Brad Fittler and Paul Gallen have gone head-to-head over Marata Niukore's high shot on James Tedesco during the Roosters' controversial loss to the […]<\/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\/69497"}],"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=69497"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69497\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69499,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69497\/revisions\/69499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69497"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69497"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69497"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}