Manly sea Eagles coach Anthony Seibold has indicated the club may challenge the “dangerous contact” ruling that saw Jake Simpkin removed from thier match against the Melbourne Storm.
Simpkin was taken from the field in the first half of the Round 20 NRL clash following an incident involving Nelson Asofa-Solomona. The bunker deemed the contact to be Category 1, resulting in Simpkin’s mandatory removal from the game and an 11-day stand-down period.
However, Seibold stated in his post-game press conference that the club’s own medical testing classified Simpkin’s symptoms as Category 2. This distinction could form the basis of a challenge to the ruling.
“It was disappointing, but we lost Jake for the game, so it was category one from the bunker but from our testing it was category two,” Seibold explained. “Jake does have a mark on his face and Nelson is a big man so he copped a fair elbow from Nelson, so he stayed down becuase of that bit he wasn’t concussed. We don’t believe it was category one but we lost him for the night so we were down to three players on the interchange bench.”
The loss of simpkin significantly impacted Manly’s interchange options for the remainder of the match. Seibold confirmed the club’s intention to review the incident further.
“We will lose him for 11 days but we might challenge that as our doctor considers it a category two,so if that is the case tomorrow with the follow-up protocols then we might put a case that it was category two.”