Annesley denies ‘crackdown’ as Grant fights charge

Grant has entered a not guilty plea, but only risks a $1500 fine if he loses at the panel.

“There was no intention to put the kicker in any position and I don’t feel like he was in a dangerous position,” he said on Monday.

The sanction comes amid suggestions the referees have been ordered to crack down on players making contact with general-play kickers, with Manly enforcer Josh Aloiai spending time on the sidelines earlier in the season.

However, according to NRL head of football Graham Annesley, that isn’t the case.

“I have to be careful because there’s a hearing that will take place, but one thing I can clarify is that there has been no directive given to match officials or the match review committee about any supposed crackdown on incidents like that,” he said.

“That is purely a discretionary matter for referees and Bunker to use their judgement in determining what action should be taken in any incident of alleged foul play.

“There has been no crackdown.”

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Rabbitohs playmaker Lachlan Ilias suffered a broken leg from a similar incident in a NSW Cup game earlier in the year, which resulted in a multi-week ban for Freddy Lussick.

Storm legend Billy Slater acknowledged the officials are in a tough spot in regards to kick pressure as player safety continues to be a topic of discussion.

“At the moment, the referees have got a really tough job because when the game changes something and they want to police something, they’ve got to go hard at it,” he said on Nine’s The Billy Slater Podcast.

“It’s like every little touch around it – it’s like the kick pressure. As soon as you touch a kicker it was a penalty. I think we will find that happy medium.

“I think we are just going through a bit of a teething process at the moment around the interpretation around the kicker.”