Cowboys coach Todd Payten has been left disappointed by the lack of action from the officials after a dangerous tackle resulted in a serious injury to NQ prop Tom Mikaele.
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Mikaele was injured in a cannonball tackle from Knights star Tyson Frizell. A cannonball is an illegal tackle that occurs when a defender tackles the legs of a vulnerable attacking player who is being held up by other defenders.
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Frizell was penalised for the action but wasn’t reprimanded further.
In Payten’s eyes, that wasn’t sufficient, with the Cowboys coach also referencing the high shot on Knights star Kalyn Ponga which resulted in a Braidon Burns sin bin.
“I’m really disappointed with how the Tom Mikaele incident was handled,” Payten said in his post-match press conference.
“Considering you know, Kalyn gets up and plays on and Tom’s out for the next six weeks.
“I’d just like a bit of consistency, but we’ll see what happens through the week.
“It (Mikaele’s injury) did hurt us. We had to use four interchanges prior to halftime even though the plan was to use three.”
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The offender Frizell was asked about the tackle post-game, stressing there was zero intent to injure.
“I’m not too sure I’ll leave that with them. It’s unfortunate as it’s not something you want to see happen to a player and there was no intent to hurt him in any way,” Frizell said.
“I hope he’s all right and we’ll just see what happens.”
Mikaele wasn’t the only Cowboy who picked up an injury.
Early in the first half, star fullback Scott Drinkwater walked off the field with a rib cartilage issue but returned to the game.
Drinkwater finished the game but it was obvious he wasn’t his blistering self.
“He had to get needled. He’ll be sore,” Payten said.
“Given the nature of rib cartilage injries, you can needle that.
“We’ve got two weeks before we play again. I don’t know the severity of the cartilage damage, but it’s certainly inhibited and affected his flow and rhythm.”