Karate kid ... Slater is on report yet again, this time for a boot to the face while taking a high kick. Source:FOX SPORTS
Melbourne Storm star Billy Slater has escaped sanction over his high kick that caught Bulldogs' teenage prop David Klemmer in the face, leaving him free to face the Broncos next Friday.
4 Tries 3 | |
|---|---|
| Ryan Hinchcliffe 21' | Sam Perrett 43' |
| Mahe Fonua 36' | Krisnan Inu 71' |
| Matthew Duffie 63' | Kris Keating 75' |
| Lagi Setu 66' | |
3 Conversions3 | |
| Cameron Smith 23' | Krisnan Inu 44' |
| Cameron Smith 65' | Krisnan Inu 72' |
| Cameron Smith 67' | Krisnan Inu 76' |
The incident came during as the Storm repeated their 2012 grand final performance with a 22-18 victory at AAMI Park, denying a thrilling late charge by the Bulldogs.
The home side took a half-time 10-0 lead but their second half couldn't have started any worse.
Slater leapt high to take a bomb and his boots made contact with the face of the Bulldogs forward.
The video referee said Slater had "kicked him'' with referee Ben Cummins putting the Test custodian on report for dangerous play.
The incident provoked plenty of debate about Slater's jumping style afterwards and the Melbourne view that he should go unpunished was backed when the NRL announced on Friday that no charges would be laid from the game.
Slater was only available for the match after making an early guilty plea to a dangerous contact charge after he knocked out Antonio Winterstein early in last round's win over the Cowboys.
The rattled Storm a minute later conceded a try after Bulldogs five-eighth Josh Reynolds put a cross-field kick into the hands of winger Sam Perrett to touch down.
A Cooper Cronk try was then disallowed because of obstruction by Bryan Norrie and it looked like the Bulldogs were going to cause a boil-over.
But Melbourne regrouped and scored two tries within three minutes to look to have the match in their keeping.
Winger Matt Duffie showed his aerial credentials with a special leap to take a Cronk bomb before planting the ball in the 63rd minute and he was quickly followed by young forward Lagi Setu, who burrowed across the line.
Melbourne coach Craig Bellamy and captain Cameron Smith were bewildered by the call.
"What's Billy supposed to do with his foot ... chop it off?", said Bellamy.
"If he's catching a kick and he's gone up off the ground, he's not to be touched.
"If you touch him in the air, you're going to get penalised."
Slater said after the match he only had eyes for the ball.
"I just go up for the footy and try to protect myself as best I can," he said.
"What they (officials) saw in it, I'm not too sure."
Smith said he'd seen the Test custodian take the ball in the same way since he started his career.
"Billy's been going up for high balls like that for as long as I can remember, he works on that every week at training," Smith said.
"I was quite mystified by that.
"It was unintentional by Bill.
"David (Klemmer) hit Bill in the air so I don't know what else Bill is supposed to do there."
Bulldogs coach Des Hasler said he didn't think the Slater incident was intentional.
"It was probably just dangerous play," Hasler said.
He lamented his team's failure to make the most of their chances.
"It was two points we could have got tonight.
"It was all within our grasp and we'll take some hard lessons out of it.
"We probably had some genuine opportunities we didn't really capitalise on enough."
He said troubled fullback Ben Barba was a chance to play in their Good Friday clash with Souths and he will make a decision mid next week.
Re-live the game by clicking here and visit our NRL Match Centre, featuring play-by-play commentary and stats.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét