{"id":560878,"date":"2026-03-24T10:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T10:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/560878\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T10:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T10:14:14","slug":"ryan-couchman-judiciary-verdict-hip-drop-tackle-on-jmaine-hopgood-st-george-illawarra-dragons-vs-parramatta-eels-round-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/560878\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Couchman judiciary verdict, hip drop tackle on J\u2019maine Hopgood, St George Illawarra Dragons vs Parramatta Eels, Round 3"},"content":{"rendered":"

A remorseful Ryan Couchman has copped a four-match ban for a \u201cclumsy mistake\u201d that has ruled Eels rival J\u2019maine Hopgood out for the rest of the season after scans confirmed an ACL tear as a result of a hip-drop tackle.<\/p>\n

Couchman was referred straight to the NRL judiciary by the match review committee where he arrived on Tuesday evening flanked by Dragons officials including coach Shane Flanagan.<\/p>\n

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The 22-year-old pleaded guilty to the 28th-minute tackle, with the panel of Greg McCallum and Bob Lindner deliberating for 19 minutes after a 64-minute hearing before they unanimously agreed on a four-match ban.<\/p>\n

NRL counsel Lachlan Gyles had asked for a four-match suspension, while defence counsel Nick Ghabar sought a four-match ban with a one-game discount due to the early guilty plea.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thank them (the panel) for a fair hearing,\u201d Couchman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to apologise to J\u2019maine and wish him all the best in his recovery because I know what it\u2019s like, so I\u2019m behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m obviously disappointed because I won\u2019t be able to be out there with my teammates for four weeks. But I\u2019ll do everything I can to help them prepare for the next few matches and then be out there as soon as I can.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt can be a tough process (Hopgood\u2019s ACL recovery) but I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll have great support behind him, and I want to extend my support to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

A comparable tackle made by Manly\u2019s Toff Sipley last year was used heavily throughout the hearing, with Ghabar arguing that it was \u201cmore forceful and careless\u201d and resulted in four matches.<\/p>\n

Couchman also received three character references from former players Mick Potter and Tim Grant, as well as from one of his junior coaches.<\/p>\n

Potter said he considers Couchman \u201cto be of high integrity\u201d and that \u201cthe offence is out of character,\u201d while Grant wrote that the young Dragons forward is \u201camong the highest quality of young men I\u2019ve encountered in the game\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Gyles argued the dangerous contact was brought about by a \u201ccareless mistake\u201d and that it was important for the judiciary panel to issue a sanction that would be a deterrent to others and could change behaviour. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnything less than four weeks doesn\u2019t send a strong enough message to other players. A clear message must be sent to other players that this is something we don\u2019t want in the game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Couchman was quizzed by both legal representatives and conceded he lost balance in his legs and didn\u2019t get his feet close enough to the tackle which allowed the Eels forward to burst through.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy thoughts were to not land on his legs and to land on the ground (instead)\u201d he said, pointing out that his left hand gripped teammate Damien Cook in the tackle, rather than Hopgood.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m trying to land my backside on the ground instead of on his legs. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy torso lands on his ankle which I understand is a risk of injury. I didn\u2019t mean to put myself in that position, but the weight of my hip and butt is on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Couchman missed almost all of the 2025 season with an ACL injury and made sure he could apologise to Hopgood after good friend and former teammate Jack de Belin told him it was a suspected ACL tear.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m only three games back from an ACL so I went over to apologise and he accepted it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Gyles suggested that Couchman should have dropped out of the tackle and that his duty was to protect his opponent, while Ghabar argued that the contact was accidental and that he \u201cdidn\u2019t swing his hips violently\u201d before landing on Hopgood\u2019s legs.<\/p>\n

Couchman will be free to return in round eight when the Dragons take on the Roosters in the traditional Anzac Day clash. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A remorseful Ryan Couchman has copped a four-match ban for a \u201cclumsy mistake\u201d that has ruled Eels rival…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560879,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,252088,77424,28401,49979,269536,54475,85,4563],"class_list":["post-560878","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-dragons-player","tag-hip-drop","tag-judiciary-verdict","tag-martin-gabor","tag-pic-desk","tag-ryan-couchman","tag-sports","tag-st-george-illawarra-dragons"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560878","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=560878"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560878\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}