NRL judiciary live: Nelson Asofa-Solomona fights to play in grand final

Verdict is in and it’s guilty. Nelson Asofa-Solomona misses the grand final and five matches after an unsuccessful challenge.

Most of the games will be served in New Zealand’s end-of-season Pacific Nations Championship campaign. It was a unanimous verdict from the panel.

That’s all from us after a rather large Monday night at NRL HQ. Enjoy your finals football.

Unsurprisingly, it took chairman Bellew quite a while to go over an hour’s worth of evidence.

He stresses that the panel is to ignore the fact it’s grand final week. He says the judicial code doesn’t differentiate between grand finals and normal NRL games, and neither should the panel.

The judiciary panel and all parties now retire for a bit of a lie down.

Ghabar’s evidence wraps up. Giles now gets to counter and is arguing that “the laws of physics” don’t support the suggestion a winger in Valentine Holmes can generate the same force as Nelson Asofa-Solomona. He says the best indicator of force in the tackle is that Collins “ends up two metres back from the point of contact”.

That’s the submissions done after a little over an hour of evidence. Geoff Bellew now recapping, and he’ll strike out anything he doesn’t deem admissible. And it’s at this point we start to wonder if the NRL’s ordered us pizza.

We’re also going through Collins’ concussion history in a report in front of the panel members.

Ghabar is doing this in reference to Collins’ concussion – he played no further part in the game – being used an element of Asofa-Solomona’s charge.

In 11 of his 113 NRL matches, “Collins has displayed signs or symptoms that require a head injury assessment. The relevance of this is that one needs to be cautious when using injury as an indicator of force.”

Nick Ghabar now in to mount his case. He acknowledges Nelson could have bent his knees or back more to make lower contact and says he’s pleading guilty for a reason.“We say that (tackle) is at the lower end of the lack of carelessness,” before outlining four arguments to be made.

That Asofa-Solomona had two arms outstretched, and did not hit Collins with a swinging armHe doesn’t use his shoulder, contact is front onAsofa-Solomona didn’t rush up out of the line, “but holds his position”. At the point of impact, the line is basically stopped awaiting contactAsofa-Solomona doesn’t leave the ground

He also says most of the momentum in the impact was generated by Collins charging into the defence, and that Katoa’s part in the tackle also reduced Asofa-Solomona’s target area in making contact.

Lachlan Giles is now presenting his argument for the grade three to remain.

He’s stressed the fact that the judiciary panel can’t take into account the fact we’re in grand final week. “Treated like a mid-season game,” is his point.

He points out Collins did not have an ability to protect himself going into contact, he didn’t step or drop his height to throw off Asofa-Solomona’s tackle technique.

“He doesn’t make any attempt to drop into contact,” Giles says as we go through various angles of the tackle, to show the force of contact.

“You’ll see the player’s head go back when hit by the arm/shoulder of Asofa-Solomona.

He points out that Eli Katoa drops his body into a conventional tackle, “where if anything, Asofa-Solomona goes up into contact… we don’t see an attempt to lower contact. It’s a grade three certainly, not an entry level (charge), not even a moderate level (charge).”

The good doctor’s evidence wraps up.

We’re working through the other evidence that will be presented – and we have NAS’s defence putting forward a high tackle from Val Holmes in Origin II this year.

It’s a hit on Payne Haas as he takes a regulation hit-up and Holmes hits him high. Haas is sweet, plays the ball and play continues. Holmes was charged with a grade one careless high tackle and took an early guilty plea.

Dr Matthew Morgan is appearing via video link. He was the Roosters medical officer for the match and is taking questions from NRL counsel Lachlan Giles.

He’s working through his report from the night which details the category one concussion suffered by Lindsay Collins from “contact to the jaw”.

Nelson Asofa-Solomona is flanked by Storm general manager Frank Ponissi.Credit: Wolter Peeters

He mentions Collins’ “clear on-field signs of concussion”, pointing to his playing of the ball in the wrong direction and the fact a teammate needed to help steady him after the contact.

Patient confidentiality has played a part in what can be discussed here; Dr Morgan says he doesn’t have Collins consent to share specifics on his symptoms.

Nick Ghabar now takes his turn examining the medical report. We’re going through HIA protocols, and the minutia of a SCAT-5 test. Basically how a player is determined to be concussed.

“It’s not the be-all and end-all,” Morgan says.

We’ve got an objection from Giles – I like it. Just like on TV. Giles is arguing that Ghabar is straying from the incident in question as he asks Morgan about other concussion diagnosis, NRL chairman Geoff Belles upholds the objection.

This certainly appears to be why we had a 40-minute delay in the hearing starting.

Nelson Asofa-Solomona flattens Lindsay Collins.Credit: NRL Imagery

NRL counsel is stridently arguing any questions that he deems strays toward breaching Lindsay Collins’ patient confidentially.

Under cross-examination from Asofa-Solomona’s counsel Nick Ghabar, Morgan was asked if Collins displayed clear onfield signs of concussion. Morgan said that he did. Ghabar said that was not a medical diagnosis.

Ghabar: “You have not made a diagnosis of concussion”.

Morgan: “In the report under diagnosis, I said there were clear symptoms of concussion requiring an 11-day stand down”.

Ghabar: “Where in this report do you detail the symptoms that led you to that conclusion.”

He’s arguing it’s not relevant and Ghabar is fighting a losing battle to get any further questions through on this line.

Chairman Bellew has dismissed the approaches after Giles’ fifth objection. “I’m not going to disclose symptoms,” Dr Morgan says. “I’m not at liberty to disclose that.”

After a 40-minute delay where legalities and what is admissible were argued apparently, we finally have lift-off. We’re looking at 10 different replays of the Collins tackle, the referee’s report, a medical report and paperwork indicating Asofa-Solomona is pleading guilty but disputing a downgrading.

Don’t know if we need all these angles, to be honest, particularly the long-range shot from 80m away behind Melbourne’s goalposts. Oh the wonders of NRL judiciary.