RUGBY-LEAGUE
CRONULLA-SUTHERLAND SHARKS
Cronulla Sharks' captain Dale Finucane found guilty at the judiciary
Cronulla's captain Dale Finucane has been found guilty of a grade two dangerous contact charge and has been suspended for two matches after making contact to the head of Stephen Crichton.
The Sharks' forward chose to fight the grade three charge in an attempt to avoid a suspension, after his attempted tackle left the Penrith centre needing plastic surgery on his damaged ear, but was unsuccessful in getting the charge changed to a grade one offence.
In his defence, Finucane detailed how he had identified Crichton as having no support players around him and that he saw it as an opportunity to fly out of the line and apply defensive pressure.
It was late in the contest of a game Cronulla were trailing and Finucane took it upon himself to try and alter the momentum of the match.
“The objective was to limit the amount of metres they could make on the field by getting to the player that was isolated," Finucane said.
“It’s not standard tackling to try and do that and, as I said, it wasn’t my intention to make head-to-head contact.”
The Sharks’ captain misjudged Crichton’s carry though and collected the Penrith centre flush in the head. This resulted in him having to leave the field for a HIA, while also suffering a gruesome laceration to his left ear.
“I wouldn’t change what I did,” Finucane declared.
“It was completely accidental; head clashes happen in rugby league.”
Finucane escaped sanction on the field with the referee and the official in the Bunker deeming the contact accidental.
It was a ruling that puzzled Penrith coach Ivan Cleary in the aftermath of the incident.
“I guess historically a head clash has been a head clash,” the coach said.
“I just kind of think that for how easy it is to give a high tackle penalty away now for contact with the head- it just looked bad.
“I am not exactly sure of interpretations but that is clearly contact with the head. It knocks him out.
“It is just weird that that is okay but the mildest of taps, sometimes, is not okay.”
The match review committee issued Finucane with a grade three dangerous contact charge the following morning.
He could have accepted a two-match ban for the hit but elected to fight his case at the judiciary.
“You will note that there is no referee report in front of you,” Finucane’s representative Nick Ghabar said.
“The referee saw this as nothing more than the head clash, which is an accepted risk of playing rugby league.
“What you should not do in my respectful submission is look at it retrospectively because of the outcome.
“You should not find a player guilty because of the outcome, a laceration to player Crichton's ear. You should look at the tackle for what it is.”
However, Patrick Knowles - acting as the NRL prosecutor – argued that it was a reckless attempt at a tackle which Finucane could have easily avoided.
“What we are saying is that this action by player Finucane was careless in the sense that it could have been avoided had he been in control by executing the tackle using a conventional tackling technique,” Knowles said.
“The tackle was conducted in a careless manner because of the force, because of the fact that the contact was to the head, and because the risk of injury is high.”
The three man panel agreed, taking just under half an hour to deliver the guilty verdict.
Finucane's representative then sought to get a grade one charge, but the panel decided a grade two charge was more appropriate. The Cronulla captain will now miss his side's games against South Sydney and St George Illawarra.
