NRL 2021: 18th man Joseph Suaalii denied debut, Dylan Brown knees Drew Hutchison, Eels vs Roosters, Round 9

The Roosters lost Victor Radley early to a concussion, while James Tedesco was felled by a shoulder from Marata Niukore and Drew Hutchison was sent to hospital for incidents in the same passage of play.

Tedesco played on, but Matt Ikuvalu was sent for a HIA late in the first half, but returned to the field after halftime by which time Suaalii could have made his debut.

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Round 9

Dirty Eels do damage to Roosters

1:06

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Had Brown been sin-binned or placed on report for his knees in the ribs of Hutchison it could have opened the door for 18th man Suaalii to get his first NRL start.

Under NRL rules a nominated 18th man can now take the field when three of the 17-man squad fail a head injury assessment or when a player suffers a match-ending injury caused by foul play and the perpetrator is sin-binned or sent off.

“They lost Victor Radley in the opening minutes so we know that he is not returning, but this was really confusing,” Yvonne Sampson said on Fox League at halftime in relation to the loss of Radley, Ikuvalu and Hutchison in the first half.

“What do the Roosters do from here?”

“Drew Hutchison won’t come back on the field and I don’t know how the Bunker or the match referee missed the knees in the back,” Greg Alexander replied.

“That should have been a reportable offence and the player has left the field, so the Roosters should have been able to replace Drew Hutchison with the 18th man, but they can’t and the 18th man is Joseph Suaalii.

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“Marata Niukore was put on report for this and it all happened in the same passage. He hits Tedesco high with the shoulder or upper arm.”

Cooper Cronk also noted that the sin bin could have been used under the new law interpretations to give Niukore a 10-minute spell.

“The thing is with the new rules and the new interpretations is the referees are allowed with contact to the head I would have thought that would come into consideration for 10 minutes in the bin,” Cronk said.

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“The fact Dylan Brown did not get any question marks is a bit weird for me.”

Sampson then updated Hutchison’s condition after he was sent to hospital which caused Alexander to again call for Suaalii to be used as an 18th man.

“Drew Hutchison has suspected broken ribs and a punctured lung and paramedics were called in to give him oxygen because he copped very heavy knees from Dylan Brown,” Sampson said.

“It looked dreadful as soon as it happened. You could see how much pain he was in.”

“In the same passage we had James Tedesco hit with a high shot,” Alexander added.

“Niukore came through with the shoulder and hit him with the upper arm so they picked that one up and put him on report, but they let the Dylan Brown and Drew Hutchison incident slide by.

Roosters press conference

7:03

“Now Drew Hutchison won’t return so that then invokes the 18th man because he should have been put on report.

“But the fact that he wasn’t means that the Roosters will be down another man.”

Roosters coach Trent Robinson was filthy at the Brown decision post match after he was placed on report while they were running out for the second half.

“They looked at it ten times and couldn’t find anything,” Robinson said.

“Then, they had all of halftime and then we run out after halftime and they say it’s on report now.

“They could have told us ten minutes in so I could’ve changed it in the dressing room. But they told us as we were running out on the field.

“I had to make a split-second change as we were running out on the field. It’s ridiculous, it’s incompetent to not see that.

“Guy goes to hospital and then how long was that? 20 minutes later, you put him on report. It’s ridiculous.”