The NRL's inconsistencies on hip-drops has been laid bare with Payne Haas facing a ban for his tackle on Reagan Campbell-Gillard, which left the Parramatta prop with a suspected fractured hip.
Haas was on Saturday hit with a grade-two dangerous contact charge, after he fell on the legs of Campbell-Gillard in a tackle that went unpunished in the match.
Haas will miss one game with an early guilty plea, or two if he attempts to fight it at the judiciary and loses.
The bunker and match review committee disagreed on the controversial tackle style for the second time in 15 days, as Haas escaped any punishment from referee Ashley Klein in Brisbane's 26-16 win over Parramatta.
This was despite play being stopped and the bunker having the chance to review the incident as Campbell-Gillard battled with the injury.
Had Haas been sin-binned it would have left the Broncos with 11 men as Ezra Mam was also sent for 10 minutes for a hip-drop tackle in the previous set.
Mam received the same level grading as Haas on Saturday, despite the bunker determining his tackle was illegal and Haas's was not.
To add to Parramatta's frustrations, Eels forward J'maine Hopgood was sin-binned by the bunker for a hip-drop tackle in the same match.
On Saturday the match review committee deemed Hopgood's tackle not as bad as Haas's, with the Eel copping just an $1800 fine.
"I'm not an expert on hip-drops but to me all three of them looked pretty similar, and I know which one had the worst result," Parramatta coach Brad Arthur said after the match.
"If their (the defender's) feet are off the ground then that's what happens."
Campbell-Gillard's injury has all but killed off his NSW State of Origin chances.
The prop left TIO Staduim in an ambulance bound for a Darwin hospital with a two-month stint on the sidelines predicted.
Friday night's indiscretions are the latest in a string of dramas around hip-drop tackles.
Canterbury rookie Jacob Preston was sin-binned in their Good Friday clash with South Sydney two weeks ago for a hip-drop, only to be cleared by the match review committee the following day.
The run of incidents has left the NRL pondering how best to police the illegal shot, defined by a defender swinging around and placing his body weight on the ball-carrier's lower legs.
The tackle has the potential to cause serious injury but players and coaches across the league have persistently claimed it is never made with malice.
Brisbane coach Kevin Walters defended Haas after the game.
"I didn't see anything too dramatic with it (Haas' tackle), but I'm sitting up and I'm a coach," Walters said.
"No coach is coaching players to go out and do that, obviously. We have too much respect for each other.
"We as coaches and as I say the players are trying to avoid that sort of situation but on your line, game on the line, you've got to stop them from scoring.
"And that's where both of the incidents happen."
