{"id":263944,"date":"2025-11-05T09:03:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T09:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/263944\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T09:03:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T09:03:21","slug":"new-zealand-coach-stacey-jones-calls-for-greater-scrutiny-of-warm-ups-as-nrl-continues-probe-into-eliesa-katoa-incident","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/263944\/","title":{"rendered":"New Zealand coach Stacey Jones calls for greater scrutiny of warm-ups as NRL continues probe into Eliesa Katoa incident"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Zealand coach Stacey Jones has backed calls for greater scrutiny of warm-ups, as Kiwi and Samoan players reveal their heartbreak over Eliesa Katoa’s head injury.<\/p>\n

The NRL is continuing a review into Katoa’s three head knocks at Eden Park, with the Tonga star still recovering in Auckland after seizure activity and a brain bleed.<\/p>\n

The matter of most interest remains Katoa’s initial head knock in the warm-up, which Tonga’s medical staff did not believe required more than an on-field check.<\/p>\n

Replays of the incident, captured by broadcasters, showed Katoa falling backwards to the ground after teammate Lehi Hopoate’s shoulder struck him in the head.<\/p>\n

The 25-year-old then suffered two further hits to his head in the game, and while he passed a HIA for the first of those, the Melbourne star fell ill after the second.<\/p>\n

Tonga officials maintained they did not see a replay of the Katoa’s collision with Hopoate in the warm-up until after the game.<\/p>\n

Under current rules, clubs have spotters at training looking for head knocks, while all contact sessions must be videoed to allow any hits to the head to be reviewed.<\/p>\n

An independent doctor in the bunker also watches all contact in games to identify head knocks, with trainers also at the ground to check head contact.<\/p>\n

Shaun Johnson ‘a bit angry’ over handling of Katoa’s head knocks<\/a><\/p>\n

Former New Zealand star Shaun Johnson did not mince his words when discussing the circumstances leading to Eli Katoa’s frightening injury scare in the Pacific Championships.<\/p>\n

But as it stands, there are no such measures required for pre-game, with Katoa’s sickening collision with Hopoate the first noted warm-up incident of its kind.<\/p>\n

“There should be scrutiny around it,” Jones said when asked if there needed to be more done to ensure head knocks weren’t happening in warm-ups.<\/p>\n

“I don’t know what went on \u2026 but there has got to be some real good care around the players.<\/p>\n

“We have it at training.<\/p>\n

“But again, I don’t know enough to comment on what went on.<\/p>\n

“My thoughts and prayers are really just with Eli right at the moment \u2026 Obviously it wasn’t nice and I just hope for Eli to make a full recovery.”<\/p>\n

Jones’s comments come after fellow Kiwis great Shaun Johnson said earlier this week, “heads will roll” over the incident, furious that Katoa was allowed on the field.<\/p>\n

Katoa’s former teammate at the Warriors, Jazz Tevaga, said the situation should “never have happened”.<\/p>\n

“It’s very heartbreaking to see for my brother Eli,” Tevaga told AAP at Samoa’s fan day ahead of Sunday’s Pacific Cup final against New Zealand.<\/p>\n

“I sent him a message and pray he is OK.<\/p>\n

\"GettyImages-2244582910\"<\/p>\n

Katoa is still in hospital recovering from a series of head knocks from the New Zealand game. (Getty Images: Hannah Peters)<\/p>\n

“It shouldn’t have happened, but it did happen. All we can do is pray and hope he comes through the other side.”<\/p>\n

Kiwi forward Isaiah Papali’i said Katoa had also been on his mind.<\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily podcast<\/a><\/p>\n

ABC Sport Daily is your daily sports conversation. We dive into the biggest story of the day and get you up to speed with everything else that’s making headlines.<\/p>\n

“I’ve never really experienced or seen anything like that before,” Papali’i said.<\/p>\n

“He’s a good friend of mine from when he first came into the Warriors. I was there.<\/p>\n

“I don’t really know how to comprehend or go about it in terms of what the next steps are. But I just want him to make a full recovery or get back to full health.<\/p>\n

“Pretty much the whole rugby league community, or everyone that knows him, is behind him and thinking of him through some pretty tough times.<\/p>\n

“But I know he’ll be strong and he’ll bounce back.”<\/p>\n

AAP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New Zealand coach Stacey Jones has backed calls for greater scrutiny of warm-ups, as Kiwi and Samoan players…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,1736,158,130405,159,85,123435],"class_list":["post-263944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-new-zealand","tag-nrl","tag-pacific-championships","tag-rugby-league","tag-sports","tag-stacey-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263944","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=263944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}