{"id":615540,"date":"2026-09-29T17:34:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:34:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/615540\/"},"modified":"2026-09-29T17:34:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-29T17:34:16","slug":"phoenix-crossland-gets-four-match-ban-for-hip-drop-tackle-on-nathan-cleary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/615540\/","title":{"rendered":"Phoenix Crossland gets four-match ban for hip-drop tackle on Nathan Cleary"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI want to thank everybody inside for a fair hearing,\u201d Crossland said after the result was handed down. \u201cI apologise to Nathan and the Panthers and more importantly the game and the fans. It\u2019s a terrible start to the most important week of the year due to myself.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as I walk out of this building my focus goes to the Newcastle Knights and winning this grand final, helping Harrison Graham prepare as best he can and get a win on Sunday.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI called [Nathan Cleary] yesterday. It was a tough phone call,\u201d Crossland said during the hearing. <\/p>\n

\u201cI had to apologise and make sure he was doing all right. It was a horrific incident and he\u2019s our best player. I reached out to his dad as well. I apologised to him. It ruined a great game and left a sour taste in everyone\u2019s mind. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s such a gentleman. He told me to stop saying sorry. He understood the situation, he was a class act and he was really good about it. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been the worst couple of days of my life. I\u2019m a fan of the game before I\u2019m a player. He\u2019s my favourite player by a mile, so to be the reason he\u2019s in hospital is killing me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The suspension means Crossland is out until at least the semi-finals of the World Cup if New Zealand makes it that far.<\/p>\n

The Wellington-born forward received several abusive messages on social media over the incident, with Cleary defending him from his hospital bed<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cPlease don\u2019t be one of these people writing comments like this to Phoenix, it was a complete accident and he doesn\u2019t deserve this unwarranted hate,\u201d Cleary wrote in an Instagram story. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe reached out to apologise and I have nothing but respect for him. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a competitor and our game is made up of split-second moments that sometimes lead to unfortunate circumstances. <\/p>\n

\u201cComments like this are so unfair. Spread love, not hate.\u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI want to thank everybody inside for a fair hearing,\u201d Crossland said after the result was handed down.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":615541,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1060,1558,46300,69995,275844,302934,5504,2082,303212,6276,26882,29888,303202,22311,807,89505,111,2653,139,69,90,16856,16857,57694,213,10809,40865,1361],"class_list":["post-615540","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ban","tag-been","tag-broke","tag-cleary","tag-clearys","tag-crossland","tag-following","tag-for","tag-fourmatch","tag-gets","tag-halfback","tag-handed","tag-hipdrop","tag-hooker","tag-kiwis","tag-nathan","tag-new-zealand","tag-newcastle","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-on","tag-panthers","tag-penrith","tag-phoenix","tag-sports","tag-sunday","tag-tackle","tag-that"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615540","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=615540"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/615540\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/615541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=615540"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=615540"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=615540"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}