Now, I don't honestly care about punishing Asiata. He's cynically used a dangerous technique to try to win the game for his team. As it's technically not outside of the rules, it's hard to see any just punishment there. The rules do need to be clarified however and tackles like that attacking knee joints with the shoulder have to be made illegal moving forward. He's single handedly decimated a team in one game. Imagine if the whole league started doing it? It'd be an unmanageable bloodbath.

And hopefully the fallout from this sees the RFL sued and the MRP all sacked and the disciplinary process rewritten. It'll be interesting to see what would happen if Paasi took legal action against them for his injuries, particularly if he ultimately doesn't make a comeback.

I've no problem with any of the bans given to Saints players this season what I do have a problem with is a bloke's ended the season of ywo players and nothing being done

The club needs to get official clarification from the RFL and Disciplinary that this type of "Cannonball Tackle" on the knee joint is legal and allowable. The club can then prepare for this type of technique to execute on Asiata in the home against Leigh.



I believe the scans on Passi's knee is showing up far worse than expected, 9 months is a bit optimistic its probably closer to a career ending situation.

Even before the Passi incident, I felt very uneasy and uncomfortable watching that lad tackle. A shocking technique, 2 season ending injuries and it could have been more. The passi one looked like a “throw whatever you’ve got at the man to defend your own line” and although he did a job, it’s come with consequences.



Made up for Leigh. I’m a Widnes fan and watching their development this year has been a breathe of fresh air, and I hope they go onto win something.



Not here to throw the book at anyone but at minimum, Leigh really need to work at Asiatas tackling technique before more get injured.

Think you should all go and watch the tackle on taylan may,and who did it,ended that lads season before it even started.

I know it was brave but was it sensible that Walmsley stayed on. Did he in fact make the injury worse?

What a pathetic post. Rather than just make a point, you drag up a completely unrelated point about a pretty normal tackle.



The NRL's match review co-ordinator Luke Patten confirmed the tackle was reviewed, but said “members all agreed that the actions of Paasi were not careless and did not warrant a charge”. “Firstly, the initial point of contact by Paasi was high on May’s hip/upper thigh,” Patten said in a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald. “For a tackle to be considered dangerous and spearing at the legs, the Match Review Committee must see forceful contact at or around the knee of the attacking player. “Paasi also drops to his knees at the point of contact, which we encourage players to do, and did not drop his body weight onto the back of May’s lower legs. This is one of the key indicators that we would look for in a hip-drop tackle.”

Well guess what, the MRP also decided that asiatas tackles were fine too.

What's the relevance though? Paasi was involved in a tackle where someone got injured five months ago, so therefore it's okay for a player to deliberately injure four opposition players? Lance Hohaia got sent off in a junior game, so the Ben Flower thing was okay? The Paasi tackle wasn't even inherently dangerous, tackles the hip, doesn't attack any joints, ensures he doesn't trap the legs, it's just an accident.



There will be no retrospective punishment for Asiata and I'm not calling for any either. What we need is the rules clarifying to make sure there are no more tackles like this going forward. It's already outlawed in the NRL, yet not here. That needs to be fixed. A lot of people on here need to grow up a bit. The resentment to Saints success over the years is clouding a lot of judgements, I get Leigh fans being defensive, but there's an ethical line that's been crossed with these tackles and the sport can't let it continue.

Just because a player has got injured doesn't necessarily mean there should be any bans dished out though does it.



The Knowles incident was completely different but old Wello has used that to try and get a reaction and some sympathy.

Say's who exactly, 'cry baby' Wellens ?





p.s. I hope it isn't over but I've read this nowhere.