South Sydney coach Jason Demetriou will ask the NRL why he lost a player to a failed head injury assessment when he believes they weren’t concussed.
Rabbitohs winger Taane Milne was ordered to stay off the field in the first half of Sunday’s 32-12 loss to Canberra in Dubbo.
After the game, the coach used his press conference to publicly question why the independent doctor ruled Milne out of the contest.
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“Taane has next to nothing wrong with him. We will be asking some questions about that decision, that’s for sure,” Demetriou said.
“I’ve spoken to him in the changeroom. At no point does he feel like he was concussed.
“Respect the process, and the decision… but they are big decisions we are making in games. When you’re losing a winger… that’s a question for later in the week.”
South Sydney also lost prop Tevita Tatola to concussion in the first hit-up of the game, when he collided with Josh Papalii.
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The two failed HIAs left the Bunnies with a two-man bench for the entire second half.
Under NRL rules, the 18th man can be activated when a team suffers three concussions, or when a concussion is the result of foul play and an opposition player is placed on report for the incident in question.
Instead, Isaiah Tass was unable to be activated for South Sydney, and remained sitting on the bench.
It was a third win on the trot for Canberra, but the performance by the Rabbitohs was labelled “disgraceful” at one point by league great Steve Roach.
Demetriou knows the Bunnies are not where they want to be.
“We weren’t aggressive enough, we didn’t have an aggressive mindset today,” he said.
“I think we missed 40 odd tackles. When you’re doing that, that comes out in how you run the footy as well.
“It’s our season at the moment, when we’re showing some good signs and then we’re showing some not good signs, we’re still striving for that consistently.”
The Rabbitohs take on the Tigers in round 12, while the Raiders face the Tigers looking to make it four in a row.
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