'Player safety is priority': Greenberg responds to Slater decision

NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg has backed the NRL judiciary’s Billy Slater verdict despite reiterating the league’s desire to eradicate the shoulder charge.

Slater was cleared to play for the Melbourne Storm in Sunday’s grand final against the Roosters by a three-man panel of former players following a marathon hearing on Tuesday night.

While the decision has been criticised by some, including Roosters skipper Boyd Corner, and divided many more, Greenberg is not going to use it to make any major changes to the game.

“We have a pretty diligent system, all underpinned by independence,” he told Macquarie radio.

“I’m very comfortable with the system but one thing that we won’t be changing is our stance on the shoulder charge. Player safety is at the absolute priority of all our decision-making, so we’ve got to continue to be vigilent in that area.

Slater based most of his defence on Sosaia Feki’s step initiating the collision, saying his week-long preparation for the final included watching vision of all the tries scored by both Sharks wingers across the season – including eight by Feki.

He believed the Sharks winger, as he had done all year, was headed straight for the corner post but claimed he was thrown by Feki’s left-foot step and had no time to change.

The NRL judiciary counsel had argued Slater used neither of his arms to effect the tackle, a key plank of the rules surrounding shoulder charges.

“What we found last night with the not guilty plea was the match review will continue to charge the players who make those sorts of tackles but ultimately if it does get to the judiciary it will be judged in an independent forum, and that’s important,” Greenberg said.

“That’s a really good thing for us. But there’s a reason why we have big point penalties for grade-one shoulder charges, because we’ve got to have strong deterrence.

“We’ve slowly eradicated shoulder charges out of the game and we still stand by that and we’re going to continue to do that.”

Gerard Sutton, the referee who penalised Slater for the shoulder charge in Friday night’s preliminary final, has been appointed the lead ref for the decider.

That’s despite Greenberg conceding the referees’ report showed Sutton erred in not sending Slater to the sin bin for a professional foul.

The NRL’s annual review of the rules and related aspects of the game will go ahead as planned, with the shoulder charge set to be a topic of discussion.

Adjustments appear unlikely, however, with Greenberg content to let the judiciary play the role it fulfilled on Tuesday night.

“We believe the law as it stands is clear on what constitutes a shoulder charge,” he said.

“In saying that, though, naturally as you’d expect at the end of every season we’ll look to make any changes and we’ll do some consultation.”

Slater battling ’emotional fatigue’ before grand final

Melbourne are giving Billy Slater time to recover from the emotional toll of fighting his case at the NRL judiciary, which threatened to rule him out of Sunday’s game.

Slater overturned a shoulder-charge citing on Tuesday night, allowing him to play against the Sydney Roosters in his career swansong.

Storm football manager Frank Ponissi said Slater was emotionally exhausted but that the successful hearing had brought a buzz to the club.

The Melbourne No.1 was put on light duties at training on Wednesday before the team flew to Sydney, with plans for him to build up his workload leading into the ANZ Stadium title showdown.

“There’s no doubt he’s emotionally fatigued,” Ponissi said.

“He’s put a lot of work in. He’s sent me countless texts and emails over the last few days and some of that footage that was shown (at the hearing) was put together by he and (wife) Nicole. Coming home he was happy but just exhausted.”

Ponissi said Slater’s judiciary success had given the Storm a boost as they strive to become the first club in the NRL era to claim back-to-back titles.

He said the value that the Test custodian brought to the side in such a high-stakes match game couldn’t be under estimated.

“We all saw in the preliminary final exactly how important he is,” Ponissi said.

“He’s a vital part of our team for lots of reasons. We would have had a wonderful replacement in Jahrome Hughes but there’s only one Billy Slater and the way he’s playing at the moment, especially in big games, you can’t buy that sort of experience.”

with AAP