Journalist Andrew Webster said Reece Walsh should have been suspended for his headbutt on Hudson Young, believing it’s “insane” he was only fined.
Walsh was charged with grade one striking over the incident at the 53rd minute of the Broncos’ thrilling 29-28 victory over the Raiders in their qualifying final at GIO Stadium on Sunday.
But he escaped with only a $3,000 fine with an early guilty plea.
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“I think he definitely should have got a week. It’s a headbutt,” Webster said on NRL 360 on Tuesday night.
“Ridiculous, he should have got a week.
“Don’t you think that’s insane that a headbutt, what, a headbutt is just a fine?
“Come on.”
Webster pointed out that players are receiving suspensions for hip drop tackles, which are often as a result of accidental contact.
“They’re rubbing blokes out for multiple weeks for accidentally falling on the back of ankles and calling them a hip drop,” Webster added.
“Walsh headbutts someone, sticks his finger up at the crowd, and good as gold, he’s right to play.
“If that was Nelson Asofa-Solomona, or Jared Waerea-Hargreaves or Hudson Young, you reckon it would have been a grade one or a grade two?
“It would have been a grade two headbutt.”
The panel then turned their attention to the incident where Walsh gave the crowd the middle finger as he left the field to go to the sin bin.
Reporter Paul Crawley believes Walsh needs to realise he’s a role model for kids.
“Again, you’ve got to go back to the fact, and I know former players, maybe you don’t want to accept this but you’re role models out there mate,” Crawley said to co-host Gorden Tallis.
“No they’re not,” Tallis said in reply.
“They bloody are,” Crawley then said.
“Why do 3,000 kids turn up to get his autograph?
“Because he is their role model.”
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But Tallis felt it was the responsibility of parents to be role models for their kids, not sports people.
“No, so they should admire him for what he does on the field,” Tallis said.
“But he’s not a role model because your parents are your role model.
“You see them every day, you see them every minute.
“I’ll argue with you until I go blue in the face. Sports people aren’t role models.”
But Crawley disagreed.
“Every time something happens at NRL level, it infiltrates down to the bottom level,” Crawley said.
“Because parents have got to be stronger,” Tallis said in response.
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