Dale Finucane fears the days of defenders rushing out of the line to put on hits may be dead after Coen Hess joined him in being banned after an accidental head clash.
Hess on Monday pleaded guilty to a grade-two careless high tackle, ruling the forward out of North Queensland's last round match before returning for the finals.
It came after the former Queensland State of Origin second-rower moved up and clashed heads with Campbell Graham in the dramatic dying stages of the Cowboys' loss to South Sydney.
Finucane can sympathise. The Cronulla co-captain warned the NRL were setting a dangerous precedent when he was suspended for three weeks for what he claimed was an accidental head clash with Penrith centre Stephen Crichton last month.
And after seeing the Hess injury, Finucane was unsure if players would be willing to rush out of the line in close games to try to jam opponents and swing the momentum of a match.
"Don't get me wrong, I obviously think there needs to be an extended duty of care as well. But accidental head collisions happen every game," Finucane told reporters.
"Looking at what happened in the Coen Hess situation, it appeared to be an isolated centre-winger behind the ball and looking to turn the game for them.
"I don't know whether that takes it away.
"The fact that they (accidental head collisions) are sanctioned now, I don't know whether it plays into the psyche and the way that people go into their tackles."
Finucane said that in his two games back since his ban, he had not encountered a situation where he needed to make a decision on whether to rush out of the line.
And the Sharks lock also still doesn't believe players such as he and Hess, who make head-to-head contact, should be charged when that contact is accidental.
He does concede the NRL now appear likely to stick with the approach, after Hess was first sin-binned and then suspended by the league.
"If there's no shoulder contact I find it hard to sanction," Finucane said.
"My defence was the fact that it was accidental for me.
"Accidents happen in a game and head collisions happen more often than people would think in a game.
"I guess the measure of the force is the determining factor, whether it's soft or whether it's firm.
"I don't think that 'accidental' really matters anymore now, by the sounds of how they're policing it. Because he was sanctioned based on accidental negligence."
