Stephen Crichton is set to be rubbed out of Canterbury’s blockbuster clash with Manly after the Bulldogs captain was hit with a grade-two careless high-tackle charge.
Crichton was on Saturday morning charged over the shot that left Roger Tuivasa-Sheck with a concussion, prematurely ending the Warrior’s season and leaving the Auckland-based club seething.
The Bulldogs centre can accept the one-match suspension with an early guilty plea, or fight the charge and risk a second game on the sideline against North Queensland in round 27 if he loses at the judiciary.
Crichton could have been facing more time on the sideline had the match review committee deemed the hit to be a shoulder charge.
But the contact with Tuivasa-Sheck’s head was instead considered a high tackle, allowing him to return for the final home-and-away round with an early plea.
Crichton was not sin-binned for the hit which came at a crucial point in the Bulldogs’ 34-18 win.
With the Warriors already down a centre through the injured Adam Pompey, Tuivasa-Sheck was forced to leave the field with his side up 18-16 and did not return.
Had Crichton been sin-binned, the Bulldogs would have been down to 12 men and the Warriors could have activated forward Tom Ale as 18th man.
Warriors coach Andrew Webster hit out at the decision, accusing bunker officials of not knowing what they were doing.
“I’m struggling to understand how a shoulder can go into Roger’s head, and the bunker can see it at a critical time of the game (and nothing happens),” the usually reserved Webster said.
“We lose Roger for the game and we have to reshuffle our team … and nothing gets done to them.
“We have to protect our players. I just don’t see the consistency one bit around that.
“Roger will miss next week now, couldn’t come back. And their player goes on. That’s it. I’m just frustrated how that just happens.
“I think they need to know what they’re doing. I don’t think they know. I don’t think they understand. The wording around what they say just isn’t clear. It’s hard.”
The decision not to sin-bin Crichton also raised eyebrows and questions over consistency given other sin-bins dished out in round 25.
Manly second-rower Haumole Olakau’atu was sin-binned in his team’s loss to Wests Tigers on Thursday night.
But the Sea Eagle only received a grade-one charge from the match review committee, with the hit deemed not as bad as Crichton’s.
A win over seventh-placed Sea Eagles on Friday evening would keep Canterbury’s top-four hopes alive, while a loss would put them at risk of missing out on a home final.
Warriors pair Jazz Tevaga and Addin Fonua-Blake, along with Brisbane’s Brendan Piakura and Parramatta’s Reagan Campbell-Gillard, can all take fines for offences on Friday night.
