Bulldogs wants answers from NRL after Mahoney charged for tunnel clash with Hetherington

The Bulldogs have asked the NRL for a please explain as to why Reed Mahoney was charged for the tunnel altercation with Knights forward Jack Hetherington in another twist to the bizarre incident.

Sources speaking on the condition of anonymity, due to the private talks, said Canterbury had reached out to head office to understand how Mahoney was sanctioned by the match review committee.

The NRL slapped Mahoney with a grade one contrary conduct charge, which comes with a $1000 fine with an early guilty plea, which the Bulldogs are considering challenging, for the incident that occurred in the final minutes of the Bulldogs 36-12 win over the Knights on Sunday.

Hetherington approached Mahoney and pushed the Bulldogs hooker as he made his way up the Accor Stadium tunnel after both were sin-binned in the final moments of Sunday’s match.

Hetherington will miss one match with an early guilty plea after being issued a grade two contrary conduct charge on Monday.

Knights coach Adam O’Brien was unaware of the incident when quizzed about it after the game. Canterbury coach Cameron Ciraldo brushed it off.

“I’ve heard some stuff in there [the change rooms] but I don’t think it’s too serious,” Ciraldo said.

“Jack’s a good fella, I’ve known Jack for a long time, he’s a good guy, sometimes he gets emotional, but he’s a genuinely good person, so I don’t think there’d be too much in it.”

The contest wasn’t the only thing the Knights lost, with star fullback Kalyn Ponga likely to spend time on the sidelines after picking up a “rare” foot injury.

Newcastle’s No.1 was O’Brien’s biggest concern, with the 26-year-old likely to spend time a stint on the sideline with a foot injury.

“Nothing to do with the hip pointer [injury from last week], it’s in the foot,” O’Brien said. “A ligament in the foot, as far as I know it’s pretty rare, so not great signs for us. I couldn’t tell you exactly what it is, but it’s a ligament that goes down under the foot.

“That muscle is pretty rare apparently, I’ve only had like 30 seconds just to give you guys some sort of information, but similar to like a Lisfranc [foot joint] … relatable to that, but not exactly. That’s about as much as I know.”

Ponga will be sent for scans on Monday, but with him out, Newcastle face a tough task to turn their 2-5 season around. If they want to find the same success that catapulted them into last year’s finals, O’Brien said they need to rediscover their love for the game.

“We’re playing like a frustrated footy team. You’re looking at some of the teams – and the Bulldogs are a good example, Dragons are a good example – of not having great seasons last year, and they’re loving footy at the moment, and loving being in the grind and going after stuff,” O’Brien said.

“We’re not enjoying it at the moment … We’ve got to get back to finding our love of the game.”

Sunday’s result marked a huge turnaround for Canterbury. Last season they were booed off by their own fans at half-time and were beaten by Newcastle twice, with a combined scoreline of 108-6. On Sunday, they were cheered off like champions.

Bulldogs celebrate after Bronson Xerri scores.

After a chaotic win over the Roosters and a two-point defeat to the Storm last week, Ciraldo’s team is starting to find its stride.

“I just love how this group, just any sort of adversity, they just embrace it and walk towards it and I’m really proud of them,” Ciraldo said.

The Bulldogs lost young forward Chris Patolo to a knee injury in the opening minutes of the game, and have endured a string of injuries to start the season. Ciraldo said they were ready for the bye next week.

“I felt like we’ve got better every week. I feel like three [wins] from seven, I’d probably like to be one or two more wins ahead of that, but I felt like we’ve been in every game, we’ve given ourselves a chance to win,” he said.

“We haven’t iced some moments at the back end of games, but really proud of the effort they’ve put in every game to give themselves the chance to win those games.”

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