‘What a joke’: Monster shoulder charge divides footy

Siosifa Talaki’s monster hit on Matt Doorey has sparked debate in the rugby league world after he was sin-binned for a shoulder charge that left the Sharks star seeing stars.

In the first half of Canterbury’s 18-12 win over Cronulla, Bulldogs star Talaki came charging out of the line and flattened Doorey with one of the biggest shots we’ve seen this year.

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Doorey got up and tried to convince the trainer he was fine to carry on, but later failed his HIA and was ruled out of the match.

Talaki nailed Doorey with his right shoulder, but there was conjecture over whether he made an effort to wrap his right arm around the attacker.

The shoulder charge is barred in the NRL and players must try to wrap their arms when making a tackle. There’s no doubt Talaki’s arm made contact with Doorey, but it was deemed incidental and he was sent to the sin bin and placed on report.

This hit was as big as it gets.Source:FOX SPORTS

South Sydney captain Adam Reynolds thought Talaki and the Sharks were hard done by, clearly not believing he deserved such a severe punishment.

“What a joke,” Reynolds tweeted, with a face palm emoji.

Rugby league reporter Cody Kaye tweeted: “I hate that Talaki gets binned for that. Absolutely hate it.”

However, the Fox League panel seemed to disagree. Former NSW five-eighth Braith Anasta thought the officials made the right call, while Michael Ennis added even though it wasn’t a “traditional” shoulder charge, Talaki was still in the wrong.

“The traditional shoulder charge where the arm used to be cocked — it certainly wasn’t that,” Ennis said.

“The fact that the shoulder hits the point of the head, we are trying to get that out of the game. The whiplashing motion — he (Doorey) was clearly in discomfort and concussed.

“What looked to be a great hit was only fractionally wrong – I think he will be in some trouble.”

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