NRL on right track with policing hip drop: Wade Graham

Jasper Bruce | May 2, 2023

Cronulla veteran Wade Graham believes the infamous 2021 Magic Round crackdown is evidence the NRL’s tough stance on hip-drop tackles will eventually pay off.

But as the league works to determine how best to rid the game of the illegal tackle, the forward has warned against using injuries as a guideline for determining punishments.

Over the past month the NRL has seen an increase in sanctions for the hip-drop tackle – a defender swinging around and lowering his weight onto the ball-carrier’s legs to halt momentum.

In round nine, the Sharks became the latest team to lose a player to the tackle with prop Braden Hamlin-Uele leaving the field with a knee ligament strain after a shot from North Queensland back-rower Jeremiah Nanai.

‘It’s really disappointing for Braden on a personal note,” Graham said.

“That was more of a traditional hip-drop, which we are trying to get out of the game for sure.

“By no means do we think he did it on purpose.”

While the NRL has all but eradicated the shoulder charge and spear tackle, determining the severity of hip-drop tackles on-field has proven more challenging.

An on-field sin-binning is no guarantee of a suspension from the match review committee the next day.

But Graham pointed to the infamous high-tackle crackdown of 2021 as evidence tough punishments in the short-term would curb behaviour in the long run.

Pundits were incensed when the league lowered the threshold for sin-binnings at Magic Round two years ago but Graham said players and match officials were now on the same page.

“We’ll get to that point with the hip-drops, we’re just in that awkward period,” he said.

“We’ve just got to get through it. It’ll readjust and it’ll find a level of consistency that I’m sure everyone is happy with and everyone understands.”

The Sharks are preparing to welcome veteran forward Dale Finucane back from a three-match suspension incurred for a hip-drop in round five.

The State of Origin representative has had time to ruminate on the tackle he made against the Warriors, but is no closer to working out a consistent approach.

“If I knew, I’d be on the match review committee. I really don’t know,” Finucane said.

“Tactics and the way that people train and learn to tackle and practice, I don’t believe anything’s changed there.

“I find it hard to believe that a particular tackle has just snuck in because it’s not coached.”

Nanai will miss four weeks for his shot on Hamlin-Uele in a rare instance where the punishment fits the victim’s time off.

In most cases, though, the suspended player is back on the field sooner than the victim of the tackle.

Brisbane prop Payne Haas is preparing to return from the one-week ban he incurred for a hip-drop that left Reagan Campbell-Gillard with a long-term groin injury.

But Graham said the NRL could not simply take an eye-for-an-eye approach.

“Obviously if it comes from an act of foul play, there needs to be a punishment but you’re never going to be able to better up injuries with punishments because it’s a collision sport and everything happens at pace.”