Melbourne Storm forward Trent Loiero may have a case to answer in front of the match review committee after he was placed on report for a cannonball tackle during his side’s 26-16 win over the Wests Tigers.
During the first half, the 21-year-old Loiero was placed on report by referee Chris Sutton after he was the third man in on a dangerous tackle involving Luciano Leilua.
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The cannonball style tackle left Leilua unable to get up on his feet, with trainers forced to assess his knee before he could continue on playing.
Former NRL star Michael Ennis said it’s time for the competition to crack down on the cannonball tackle after Roosters big man Lindsay Collins escaped with just a fine for a similar incident during the pre-season trials.
“This is the dangerous one where they come around from the back and the player [getting tackled] has no sight of that defender,” Ennis said in comemntary for Fox League.
“All of a sudden they get chopped from behind. He’s in some real pain here.
“We need to get those tackles out of the game. They’re just really, really ugly and it’s going to do someone real damage.
“Jackson Hastings was lucky [in the pre-season trials] that Lindsay Collins didn’t do his knee… we can’t keep rolling the dice, we can’t keep waiting until someone does an ACL to then outlaw it.”
Tigers coach Michael Maguire was asked about the incident after the match.
“I don’t really want to comment, I’d have to have another look at it,” Maguire said.
But when pressed by a reporter, he conceded that the style of tackle could be creeping back into the game.
“It’s definitely something that we never, ever practice, but it’s something that the game needs to watch. It’s pretty dangerous, and it’s a bad tackle if it’s done on someone,” he replied.
“You can see there that Luch was hobbling around for a fair while, but I’ll let the game sort that out.”
Meanwhile, Storm coach Craig Bellamy said he was hopeful Loiero wouldn’t cop a serious punishment.
“I didn’t see it closely, but I thought he was still moving,” Bellamy said about the controversial tackle.
“If they’re standing up and they’re not moving, you can’t go in and do that, I thought he was still moving – I might be wrong, I might be proven wrong there.
“I’d like to think he hasn’t done that, but like I said I thought he still had his legs driving.”