on his brother and South Sydney teammate George was fair
Paul Crawley
The Daily Telegraph
May 01, 2013 12:00AM
SAM Burgess has labelled the tackle that landed Steve Matai a one-match ban "a fair hit" and admits he started throwing punches because his brother George was lying flat on his back.
Burgess' frank admission will further infuriate Manly after they entered early guilty pleas for both Matai and Richie Fa'aoso yesterday - but not before coach Geoff Toovey unloaded on the judiciary process and match officials.
Manly will be without Matai for one game while Fa'aoso will miss eight games for his two spear tackles on Greg Inglis.
Brett Stewart also accepted the early plea for his elbow on Andrew Everingham but is free to play against the Dragons on Monday.
Burgess was reluctant to comment about the Matai tackle that sparked Friday night's brawl but did concede: "I actually thought it was a fair hit at the time. My intention wasn't to start a fight."
Asked why he reacted, Burgess questioned: "You got any brothers? It was the first time I have seen it (happen to George) so it was natural, I guess."
His admission only adds weight to Manly's theory that Matai is a marked man.
Daly Cherry-Evans called it "a cracker of a hit" and said he was surprised Matai was even facing a charge. "We see those sort of tackles week after week and no one else seems to cop any grunt from it," Cherry-Evans said.
"It's just because, unfortunately, Steve's built up a bit of a resume when it comes to the judiciary."
Manly's young winger Jorge Taufua could hardly contain his excitement when asked about the Matai tackle.
"Are you allowed to swear? That was f ... in' awesome, man," Taufua said. "I love playing outside that guy. When he pulls it off, I just lose it."
Which is pretty much what Toovey did as he attempted to explain why it was a waste of time to even bother fighting the charge at the judiciary.
"You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. That's the way the system is set up," an exasperated Toovey said.
"Unfortunately with Stevie's record people think the worst. Officials on the field thought it was OK. We've looked at it 1000 times. You can't positively say he did or didn't (make contact with the head).
"Unfortunately you've got to prove your innocence. How can you do that when the camera angles aren't there? They just speculate he did hit him.
"If you ask me and the fans they thought it was a great game, they thought it was a great tackle."
Toovey said he had not spoken to referees boss Daniel Anderson about several contentious calls that went against his team but he did speak to Anderson's offsider, former referee Russell Smith.
Asked how it went, Toovey said: "As I said, it's just a waste of time. Why bother?"
Meanwhile, Burgess backed calls for the return of the sin bin for repeated foul play after he initially raised the argument immediately after Matai was placed on report.
Burgess said: "No way am I saying that when someone gets on report it should be a sin binning because that's stupid.
But when there are four incidents in one game and two of them are identical then you have got to think how many times do we keep putting people on report for these incidents before we are going to sin bin someone?"
Newcastle prop Kade Snowden is free to play Cronulla on Sunday after pleading guilty to a grade two careless high tackle.
http://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/sam-burgess-says-steve-matais-hit-on-his-brother-and-south-sydney-teammate-george-was-fair/story-fndv36md-1226632600124
Paul Crawley
The Daily Telegraph
May 01, 2013 12:00AM
SAM Burgess has labelled the tackle that landed Steve Matai a one-match ban "a fair hit" and admits he started throwing punches because his brother George was lying flat on his back.
Burgess' frank admission will further infuriate Manly after they entered early guilty pleas for both Matai and Richie Fa'aoso yesterday - but not before coach Geoff Toovey unloaded on the judiciary process and match officials.
Manly will be without Matai for one game while Fa'aoso will miss eight games for his two spear tackles on Greg Inglis.
Brett Stewart also accepted the early plea for his elbow on Andrew Everingham but is free to play against the Dragons on Monday.
Burgess was reluctant to comment about the Matai tackle that sparked Friday night's brawl but did concede: "I actually thought it was a fair hit at the time. My intention wasn't to start a fight."
Asked why he reacted, Burgess questioned: "You got any brothers? It was the first time I have seen it (happen to George) so it was natural, I guess."
His admission only adds weight to Manly's theory that Matai is a marked man.
Daly Cherry-Evans called it "a cracker of a hit" and said he was surprised Matai was even facing a charge. "We see those sort of tackles week after week and no one else seems to cop any grunt from it," Cherry-Evans said.
"It's just because, unfortunately, Steve's built up a bit of a resume when it comes to the judiciary."
Manly's young winger Jorge Taufua could hardly contain his excitement when asked about the Matai tackle.
"Are you allowed to swear? That was f ... in' awesome, man," Taufua said. "I love playing outside that guy. When he pulls it off, I just lose it."
Which is pretty much what Toovey did as he attempted to explain why it was a waste of time to even bother fighting the charge at the judiciary.
"You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. That's the way the system is set up," an exasperated Toovey said.
"Unfortunately with Stevie's record people think the worst. Officials on the field thought it was OK. We've looked at it 1000 times. You can't positively say he did or didn't (make contact with the head).
"Unfortunately you've got to prove your innocence. How can you do that when the camera angles aren't there? They just speculate he did hit him.
"If you ask me and the fans they thought it was a great game, they thought it was a great tackle."
Toovey said he had not spoken to referees boss Daniel Anderson about several contentious calls that went against his team but he did speak to Anderson's offsider, former referee Russell Smith.
Asked how it went, Toovey said: "As I said, it's just a waste of time. Why bother?"
Meanwhile, Burgess backed calls for the return of the sin bin for repeated foul play after he initially raised the argument immediately after Matai was placed on report.
Burgess said: "No way am I saying that when someone gets on report it should be a sin binning because that's stupid.
But when there are four incidents in one game and two of them are identical then you have got to think how many times do we keep putting people on report for these incidents before we are going to sin bin someone?"
Newcastle prop Kade Snowden is free to play Cronulla on Sunday after pleading guilty to a grade two careless high tackle.
http://www.news.com.au/sport/nrl/sam-burgess-says-steve-matais-hit-on-his-brother-and-south-sydney-teammate-george-was-fair/story-fndv36md-1226632600124
