Livid Laurie Daley blasts ‘do gooders’ who wanted Jayden Campbell suspended for sliding knees tackle

League legend Laurie Daley has blasted NRL ‘do gooders’ who called for Titans tyro Jayden Campbell to be suspended for his sliding knees tackle that left Eels player Sean Russell with broken ribs and a punctured lung. 

The incident occurred as Russell scored a try for the Eels in their round one NRL clash on Sunday, with Campbell smashing heavily into Russell’s torso with his knees. 

Campbell was found to have no case to answer from the NRL’s Match Review Committee for this collision with Parramatta’s Sean Russell

Just last season Dylan Brown copped a three-match suspension for a knee-sliding tackle that left then-Rooster Drew Hutchison with a punctured lung. 

It left many Parramatta and NRL fans confused as to why Brown was suspended but Campbell escaped being charged.

‘I know young Jayden Campbell didn’t intend to hurt Sean Russell but surely it is careless at least? How is there no charge for that?’ one fan Tweeted.

‘Why was Jayden Campbell not charged for leading with the knees into Sean Russell the same way Dylan Brown did last year? If not intentional, why not just a reckless charge?’ asked another.  

Daley said there was no intent in the incident and that ‘do gooders’ should stop trying to change the game for the worse. 

‘For me when I look at that I don’t see him intentionally trying to knee young Russell. I see him going in to try and stop some guy from scoring a try,’ Daley said on the Big Sports Breakfast.

‘It’s unfortunate what’s happened to young Russell and I feel for the young man. But for me personally, I look at that and I think the match review got it right.

‘We can be all do-gooders here and say that you shouldn’t be doing this … but if you do want that type of game, it’ll be a completely different type of game.’

Daley added that cracking down on incidents where there was no intent would weaken the quality of the game. 

‘You’ll be seeing a lot more penalties. All these bloody people that want to see the game changed and to do everything right and we’ve got to be this and we’ve got to be that, if that’s the game we want, that’s fine. But don’t take away what makes this game a little bit different.

‘You’ve got to be tough to play it, you’re going to have accidents in the game and you’re going to have times where players, yep, you need to be suspended for what you did.

‘But, look at it and say, at times, there’s going to be accidents, let’s accept that.

‘If we want to go down the path of “I slapped him on the face with my finger”, that’s a head-high tackle, well go and do it. But it won’t be the game that I like.’ 

Russell was left in agony following the incident, with broken ribs and a punctured lung that are likely to see him miss up to two months of action

The NRL has a chequered history when it comes to sliding knees in tackles. While Brown was suspended in 2021, Ben Barba escaped suspension with an early guilty plea to the NRL judiciary in 2013 after sliding his knees into former Dragon Jamie Soward.

Former Storm star Billy Slater was warned by the NRL to stop sliding into tackles feet-first during his playing career.