Warriors coach Nathan Brown says Matt Lodge is one of many NRL players to lay down to win penalties as he defended his player’s actions late in the win over Canberra.
In the dying stages of regular time against the Raiders and the Warriors trailing 18-20, Lodge stayed down after a hit from Corey Horsburgh 15m from the line.
Lodge stayed down, with the bunker awarding the Warriors a penalty which they used to level the scores and send Saturday’s game to golden point.
Replays showed that Horsburgh initially made contact with Lodge’s forearm before slipping up to his head.
The 26-year-old bookend was slammed by a number of former players including commentator Steve Roach, who said “players don’t like blokes who lay down and play for the penalty”.
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Brown defended his player, saying he should not be in for more criticism that the countless players in the NRL who lay down after even marginal high contact, hoping the video ref will intervene and award a penalty.
“What’s happened in the game with the video ref getting introduced in those situations, the players copy it off player,” Brown said on Wednesday.
“I can show you every game this year where players from all other clubs have laid down, I can show last year, we lost a game ourselves off the back of the same sort of thing.
“What happens is players see other players do things and when they get away with it and get a reward out of it, everyone just copies off each other.
“If you want to criticise Matt Lodge, criticise every player every week who does it.”
The Warriors coach, who played 172 games for the Dragons from 1993 to 2000, said it was the game itself that was promoting laying down by rewarding players who do it.
“It wasn’t a part of the game when I played, I know a lot of people talk about players don’t like players laying down but at the moment the game is the one promoting it cause they’re allowing the officials to get involved in this situation. I don’t know what the answer is,” he said.
“Players, coaches, clubs, everyone looks to gain an advantage somehow and this is what happens.
“Coaches aren’t telling players to do it and player probably aren’t talking about it amongst themselves but when it comes to it and players can win a penalty if the rules allow them to do it, it’s human nature.”
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