The NRL Match Review Committee has charged Thomas Flegler with three separate offences after the Brisbane Broncos forward went rogue in Saturday’s loss to the New Zealand Warriors.
Flegler was placed on report four times in the game but the bad news didn’t end there — on Sunday, the NRL Match Review Committee fined him a minimum of $2,000 and banned him for at least two games.
It was an unhappy return for Flegler, who was playing his first game back from a four-match suspension.
Flegler was first placed on report in the 7th minute after pulling a hip drop tackle on Warriors hooker Wayde Egan.
The play incurred a penalty on the fifth tackle but premiership-winning coach Shane Flanagan thought Flegler was unlucky to have been cited.
“I’m not quite sure it’s a hip drop we’ve seen before, but he’s on report,” Flanagan said in commentary for Fox League.
Flegler attracted the ire of the referee again only 14 minutes afterwards when he hit Addin Fonua-Blake late and then ran over to the play, where he made a cannonball tackle on Josh Curran. Tensions flared up after the second hit and referee Chris Sutton sent Flegler to the sin bin for ten minutes.
The Warriors scored while Flegler was off the field and took a 12-point lead before the Broncos iced a four-pointer of their own through captain Adam Reynolds.
Flegler will be fined $1,000 for each of his first two hits, but if he unsuccessfully pleads his case at the NRL judiciary, the tackles will incur $1,500 penalties.
The Match Review Committee did not sanction Flegler for his cannonball tackle on Curran.
In the 71st minute, Flegler committed another hip drop tackle, this time on Ben Murdoch-Masila, who needed assistance leaving the field.
Flanagan said the tackle proved Flegler needed to work on his technique.
“I feel sorry for the young man (Flegler), there’s no intentioxjmtzywn in it, he just needs to change his tackle technique,” said Flanagan.
“He needs to do some work on it. We can’t have that in our game.”
Referee Sutton permitted Flegler to remain on the field but pulled his captain aside for a stern word.
“That’s four incidents of foul play on Tom Flegler. I can’t continue to just penalise him. He’s already been to the bin once,” Sutton told Reynolds.
“If I have to deal with him again, it won’t just be a penalty and staying on the field.”
Caller Warren Smith said he was surprised Flegler hadn’t been sin-binned for a second time, especially given hip drop tackles can lead to serious injury.
“It’s a tackle we’re trying to remove from the game, a technique we’re trying to remove from the game. I’m surprised he’s on the field still,” he said.
The Warriors elected to kick for penalty goal after Flegler’s hip drop tackle, all but putting the game out of reach for Brisbane.
On Sunday morning, the NRL Match Review Committee charged Flegler with dangerous contact for his hip drop tackle on Murdoch-Masila. He will miss at least two games but could be forced out of three if he unsuccessfully challenges the charge.
