{"id":131268,"date":"2025-09-09T22:24:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T22:24:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/131268\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T22:24:47","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T22:24:47","slug":"phil-gould-cameron-smith-call-for-judiciary-overhaul-after-nicho-hynes-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/131268\/","title":{"rendered":"Phil Gould, Cameron Smith call for judiciary overhaul after Nicho Hynes saga"},"content":{"rendered":"

Phil Gould<\/a> and Cameron Smith<\/a> have both urged the NRL to overhaul the match review committee system in the wake of Nicho Hynes<\/a> escaping suspension.<\/p>\n

The star Cronulla halfback was originally slapped with a grade two charge that would have ruled him out of Saturday night’s elimination final against the Roosters, but it was soon dropped to a grade one which will see Hynes pay a monetary fine instead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The tackle from Hynes during his side’s clash with the Bulldogs saw opposing winger Marcelo Montoya limp from the field, with initial reports indicating he could be ruled out for the entire finals series playing a factor in the MRC grading.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Bulldogs pull off incredible coup on eve of NRL finals<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘Wait and see’: Titans coach coy on Fifita’s future<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE: ‘We’re due’: NRL review endangers Cronulla’s hosting rights<\/a><\/p>\n

However, as revealed by Gould on Nine’s 100% Footy on Monday night, Canterbury decided to put forward fresh information regarding Montoya’s injury, which ended up working in the Sharks playmaker’s favour and allowing him to walk free.<\/p>\n

“It’s only the right thing to do for the game,” the Bulldogs general manager said.<\/p>\n

“We want our best players playing at finals time and we didn’t ever want to have it found out later on – particularly if Marcelo happened to play this week – that the charge was due to the extent of the injury, which I totally disagree with. I don’t think he should have been charged in the first place, I thought it was an absolute accident.<\/p>\n

“When we found out Sunday night that the X-ray wasn’t so bad and he was a chance of playing again in the finals, we made the decision to contact the Sharks.<\/p>\n

“They went in straight away with the doctor’s letter to the NRL and they came back and downgraded the charge, so thankfully Nicho is playing on the weekend.”<\/p>\n

Watch the 2025 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and 9Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While the right result was reached in the end according to most within the game, the process has come under scrutiny as Hynes was forced to nervously wait.<\/p>\n

Sharks legend Paul Gallen<\/a> questioned why injuries play a role in the MRC determining the level of charge and those sentiments were echoed by co-panelist Smith.<\/p>\n

“I think it’s incredible that it’s happened,” the Storm great said.<\/p>\n

“I didn’t believe it was a hip-drop to and I didn’t think he should have been charged.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Nicho Hynes during the round 27 game\u00a0Getty<\/p>\n

“I just think this opens a can of worms and I think we need to have a review of how the MRC make their charges – I’m with Gal, I don’t think it should be based on injuries.<\/p>\n

“It’s not a criminal law, we’re playing sport. Isn’t this the perfect opportunity now, because of this incident? There has to be a review.”<\/p>\n

Gould – who has been an outspoken critic when it comes to the MRC<\/a> and the amount of suspensions handed down to players – went on a trademark rant about the system.<\/p>\n

“I’ve been saying this for 20 years,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Don’t start me on the match review committee. There has to be a review to the judiciary process, it’s like a murder trial down there.<\/p>\n

“It’s ridiculous and I don’t believe we should be needing lawyers to find out what common sense is telling us about the charges and who needs to be suspended.”<\/p>\n

Gould said there were “too many charges and way too many fines”.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Phil Gould weighs in on Nicho Hynes’ hip-drop charge\u00a0Nine<\/p>\n

“It’s all too harsh,” he said.<\/p>\n

“There is absolutely no understanding about the velocity and the power and the speed of this game and what their rules do – particularly around the high tackle rule – that makes it even harder to play.<\/p>\n

“Nicho Hynes should never have been charged, so we were only too happy to put forward the information.”<\/p>\n

Hynes will wear the No.7 jumper when the Sharks host the Roosters, while the Dogs will travel down to Melbourne and face the premiership heavyweight on Friday night. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Montoya is unlikely to play in the qualifying final at AAMI Park, with rookie winger Jethro Rinakama in line for a recall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Phil Gould and Cameron Smith have both urged the NRL to overhaul the match review committee system in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":131269,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-131268","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131268"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131268\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/131269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}