NRL head of football Graham Annesley has defended the match review committee after Gold Coast Titans rake Aaron Booth avoided sanction for a cannonball-style tackle on Joe Tapine.
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Tapine, the form front-rower of the competition, was sin-binned following his angry reaction to the Booth's attempt to take him to the ground last weekend.
Booth wasn't cited for the incident, prompting questions about match review consistency after Tapine was slapped with a contrary conduct charge for his retaliation.
NRL greats Andrew Johns, Gorden Tallis and James Graham raised questions about why Booth went unpunished on the field and Annesley deflected questions at his Monday briefing.
"The match review committee has to believe the rules have been breached," Annesley said.
"... We have all sorts of rules about when is a tackle complete, how does a third-man in approach a tackle and even about what direction they come from.
"These are all the technical aspects the match review committee has to take into consideration. I'm not in anyway suggesting people aren't entitled to draw their own conclusion."
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Johns said Booth's tackle needed to be eliminated from the game. "That third man should not be allowed to come in. Dangerous."
Graham added on Triple M: "You could say 'it's an accident, I was just trying to wrap the legs up,' you could make an argument for the tackle on Joseph Tapine - the guy's just going in to wrap his legs up and he goes too low."
Tapine entered an early guilty plea for his contrary contact and accepted the $1000 fine ahead of a blockbuster clash against the Penrith Panthers on Saturday.
The 28-year-old has been the catalyst for Canberra resurrecting their season, leading the competition for post-contact metres. Tapine has made 1341 post-contact metres this season, almost 200 metres ahead of his nearest rival - Brisbane's Payne Haas.
He is also second for offloads (37), third for run metres (3138 metres) and the leading forward for total runs this season (318).
The Raiders will lean heavily on him again for the showdown with an all-star Penrith forward pack, which boasts representative powerhouses in every position.
Asked if he was happy to clear the Booth-Tapine incident, Annesley said: "I'm not going to pass judgement on that particular incident. I haven't been back to study that in great detail as the match review committee would have.
"We're trying to have a fair system that his devoid of administrative intervention.
"I won't pass judgement on that particular incident, but it would only be my view."
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