Cronulla coach Shane Flanagan has complained the NRL is “trying to soften the game up” after being incensed by action against influential duo Jeremy Smith and Wade Graham.
Both captain Smith and utility Graham were placed on report in the Sharks’ highly-physical 26-12 Friday night win over a Brisbane outfit missing six Queensland Origin forwards at Suncorp Stadium.
While the scoreline suggested an easy night, the topsy-turvy match turned the Broncos’ way on a controversial disallowed try which resulted in Graham going on report.
Starring at lock with Paul Gallen on NSW duty, Graham pulled off a huge in-goal tackle on fullback Josh Hoffman, who lost the ball.
Referee Gavin Badger initially awarded the four-pointer as Matthew Wright pounced on the ball for what would have been a 20-0 lead before referring it to video referee Bernard Sutton.
Sutton found Graham’s shoulder connected with the head of Hoffman, who groggily left the field soon after, and awarded a Brisbane penalty.
“No one wants to see anyone get injured but for me, I thought it was a really good shot,” Flanagan said.
“Wade went in there with the intent to put a good shot on him and no intent to hit him in the head.
“I just thought it was a good tackle.”
Flanagan is also sweating on a striking report on Smith, who connected with Jarrod Wallace after cleaning up a loose ball in the second half.
“He’s dived on a loose ball and put his arm up to protect himself,” he said.
“We’re trying to soften the game up. That’s happened forever and a day. There was no intent in that either.”
While not deliberate, Graham’s tackle follows suspensions against Canterbury’s Frank Pritchard and Bronco Ben Te’o for shoulder-head contact.
Both Hoffman and young forward Wallace finished with concussion concerns and Broncos coach Anthony Griffin labelled Graham’s hit a “cut-and-dried” shoulder charge.
Wright’s disallowed try turned the tide for the Sharks and sparked a Broncos comeback as they grabbed the momentum and rode it to a 16-12 scoreline.
An equaliser seemed certain before halfback Peter Wallace, in a match he’d rather forget, gifted Nathan Stapleton with a 90-metre intercept try midway through the second half that turned the tide again.
Despite a poor start, Griffin praised the youngsters in his makeshift side.
“The positive was they didn’t lose the game through attitude or effort or character – they showed bucket loads of all that,” he said.
“In the end we killed ourselves with an intercept.”
In a relief for Brisbane, x-rays have cleared centre Jack Reed of a broken fibula but he will undergo further scans this weekend after injuring his leg in the first half.
