The NRL’s decision to suspend Jahrome Hughes for making contact with a referee has been blasted by several past players as “absolute stupidity” and “ridiculous”.
The Storm are weighing up whether to contest a grade two contrary conduct charge after the match review committed cited Hughes for pushing Chris Butler.
Hughes was defending just metres from his line as the last man in defence with Warriors centre Rocco Berry charging at him.
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Butler backtracked into Hughes who pushed the official out of the way and he then successfully made the try-saving tackle to keep the scores locked at 8-8.
Melbourne went on to win the game with an incredible acrobatic try from Xavier Coates on the final play of the game.
But now they could be without Hughes for their clash against the Knights this Sunday after the NRL slapped him with a one-game ban, which will double if he contests it and loses.
“He had no choice, it’s absolute stupidity (by the NRL to charge him). Let’s not gloss over it because it’s absolute stupidity,” Mick Ennis said on Fox League.
“Rocco Berry was coming back on the inside, Hughes anticipates that, the referee gets in his eyeline, gets in his way.
“Commonsense says it’s not one of those moments where a player is frustrated and puts his hand on the referee. That’s what we don’t want in our game, we don’t want referees ever to be touched when they don’t need to be, but that was just a complete accident from Jahrome Hughes.
“Common sense has to prevail, I hope they fight that because he should never miss a week for it and the fact he was charged is just absolute stupidity, it is, it’s just absolutely ridiculous.”
Storm officials are reportedly looking at comparing the incident to a similar one last year when Penrith’s Jarome Luai was charged for making contact with a referee.
Luai avoided suspension after he was only hit with a grade one charge for pushing past touch judge Chris Sutton while celebrating a Panthers try against the Broncos.
The Hughes incident happened just 24 hours after the Bulldogs had a try disallowed when referee Ziggy Przeklasa-Adamski ran into Sharks No. 6 Bradyon Trindall.
Corey Parker agreed with Ennis and joked it should be Butler who should be missing a week for getting in the way of Hughes.
“By no means should he be missing a week for making contact with a referee, maybe the referee should get a week for being in the road,” Parker said.
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“Nah let’s be serious here, in the game the night before, Trindall was impeded by the ref, he ran into the ref and made contact and Kikau’s try was disallowed.
“This time, Hughes makes contact with the ref, he initiates contact to try and save a try, it was 8-8 at this stage, a lot at stake. And now he’s looking at a potential week, I don’t think the punishment fits the crime whatsoever.
“If Hughes makes contact and goes down, that try would be disallowed, but because Hughes initiates contact himself and he’s looking at a week, it doesn’t fit.”
For Storm coach Craig Bellamy, Hughes’ tackle had just as much influence of his team’s unthinkable win that Xavier Coates’ aerial effort.
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“If he doesn’t do that we are probably 12 behind so you don’t get back from that,” Bellamy said.“It doesn’t get the wraps Xavier’s effort got but it is just as important, stopping points is as good as scoring points.
“It’s an example of not giving up, I don’t know what the odds would be of him stopping that try. But he did his best and got rewards for it.“The team got rewarded for that effort of him stopping the try.”
Laurie Daley added on Big Sports Breakfast on Monday: “You aren’t thinking about referees, your mentality is to try and stop the try. For me it was just a classic case of the referee being in the wrong spot, a bit like what happened on Friday night. Couldn’t we have common sense in that decision as well?”
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