Manly’s forward stocks have taken another serious hit with experienced front-rower Toff Sipley copping a four-game ban at the judiciary on Tuesday night.
Sipley was referred directly to the judiciary by the match review committee after he was hit with a dangerous contact charge for a hip-drop tackle that left Dragons winger Mat Feagai with a fractured fibula and a high-grade syndesmosis injury in his right ankle.
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Tuesday’s hearing lasted 75 minutes, with the panel of Tony Puletua and Greg McCallum deliberating for just 11 minutes before they reached a unanimous verdict, with Sipley receiving a one-match discount for his guilty plea.
“Obviously you can see that they’re trying to take the hip-drop tackle out of the game,” a disappointed Sipley said afterwards.
“I do feel for injuring Mat. I did send out a message to him, but now it’s time to serve the four weeks.”
Sipley argued that he had tried to make a ball and all tackle but was left “dazed” after his head made contact with Feagai’s right shoulder, with the spectacular tackle resulting in a penalty being blown for high contact by Siosiua Taukeiaho.
Dragons players actually went to Sipley first to make sure he was OK, with the Manly forward forced to undergo a head injury assessment – which he passed – while he was in the sin bin.
“I remember being dazed,” he said, admitting he had no recollection of the tackle but did remember players telling him to stay down.
“In that moment, I did lose consciousness (but I wasn’t knocked out).”
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Prominent Sydney lawyer Nick Ghabar represented Sipley and used a comparable tackle from last year when Canberra’s Elliott Whitehead received a three-match ban for a grade three dangerous contact charge for a tackle that resulted in Brandon Smith suffering a catastrophic knee injury.
Panel members were told to ignore elements of the comparable given there was no grading for Tuesday’s hearing, with Ghabar arguing that his client wasn’t at fault given he had lost consciousness before he landed on Feagai.
“It is quite obvious from the footage that the player wasn’t at his full faculty after the initial contact,” he said, pushing for a two-match ban, with the panel accepting he was stunned but hadn’t lost control of his faculties.
“This is not a case where a player makes a decision to swing his hips and drop his weight.”
Judiciary counsel Patrick Knowles asked the panel to consider a four-match ban given the MRC felt the need to refer the tackle as a deterrent to other players to improve their technique.
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“The MRC view this tackle as at the top of the scale of careless dangerous contact,” he said, describing it as a “classic hip-drop tackle” and that there was a high degree of carelessness.
“It has become apparent that despite efforts in the past to educate players and change behaviour, the hip-drop tackle remains part of our game, and it shouldn’t remain.
“A message needs to be sent that players need to change the way they affect a tackle because this tackle has such a significant risk of injury that it must be removed from the game.”
The Sea Eagles were already without Jake Trbojevic and Taniela Paseka for Saturday’s clash against the Panthers.
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Meanwhile, Melbourne’s Ryan Papenhuyzen has avoided a fine after he was found not guilty of his grade one dangerous contact charge on Jake Averillo on Friday night.
The Storm fullback could have accepted a $1000 fine with an early guilty plea, but Papenhuyzen was adamant he made no contact with Averillo’s head despite Knowles arguing he made “noticeable but glancing contact”.
“I know it may look like it, but I definitely didn’t make contact with his head,” Papenhuyzen said via video link where he appeared alongside Storm general manager of football Frank Ponissi.
“I feel like you know when you make contact with someone’s head.”
The incident was missed by the on-field officials before the Bunker asked for Papenhuyzen to be put on report, with Ghabar successfully arguing that even if there had been contact, it wasn’t forceful enough to be deemed dangerous.
It took the panel just two minutes to reach a unanimous not guilty verdict, with Papenhuyzen avoiding a $1500 fine if he’d lost the case.
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