The NRL world is split over the judiciary’s ruling on Jack Hetherington, with the Knights star handed a one-match suspension following his altercation with Reed Mahoney on Sunday.
Hetherington was sent to the sin-bin late in the second half, before leaving his change room to confront the Bulldogs hooker in the tunnel at Accor Stadium.
Speaking on Wide World of Sports’ Freddy and the Eighth, league legend Brad Fittler disagreed with Andrew Johns that Hetherington should not have received a suspension for the incident.
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“Jack should get a fine but I don’t think Jack should be suspended for (the incident),” Johns said.
“This push and shove stuff is so embarrassing… but you know that Jack’s a hot head.”
Fittler interrupted: “I think he should (be suspended)”.
Fittler, who is a former NSW Origin coach, declared “the staff should have done better” to stop the incident from occurring, noting that the pair were sent off the field at different times.
“The staff should have done better, they should have done better without a doubt,” he said.
“They were sent off at different times. Take them to the change room.
“It’s all well and good to have fun, but if the protocols were followed, they’d be in the sheds and this wouldn’t have happened.
“The game gets embarrassed by it and everyone’s got to go along with their games… At the end of the day, Reed had to get (fined), not for what he did there but on the field.
“You can’t do that. You can’t be a pest.”
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Johns believes the altercation was a by-product of the NRL’s zero tolerance to punching, a protocol that was introduced following Paul Gallen’s famous Origin clash with Nate Myles in 2013.
“[The tunnel incident] is a by-product of the no punching rule. That’s why little blokes now get in people’s faces and carry on,” the eighth Immortal said.
“Let them punch, one-on-one. When the third bloke comes in, he goes, let them go…”
Fittler lashed back at Johns, saying the era of punching on the field is “over”.
”You can’t punch… You can’t have punching mate, those days are over,” Fittler argued.
“You can’t be grabbing blokes. On the field, he held him at stages during that spat.
“Reed didn’t have to have hold of him and then it didn’t escalate.”
