www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 7075547260

www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 7075547260

Not surprised, it was a bit naughty

With Ennis likely to miss the game too for the Bulldogs then it kind of evens things up.

He was out for a while earlierin the season, think souths did ok in his absence. Is Ennis definitely out?

On first look you appear to be correct. However Souths have an outstanding substitute in Apisai Korisau, who has played 11 NRL games for Souths this year when Luke was injured. He is a first rate hooker of Fijian origin (he played for Fiji in the last World Cup) and will perform much better than the likely substitute Canterbury has to replace Ennis.

Eniis has broken bones in his foot. He is as likely to play next Sunday as the Huddersfield surrender monkeys are likely to play at Old Trafford this year.

Plus the refs won't need earplugs - he makes Kevin Sinfield look like a Trappist monk!

Wouldn't underestimate Mbye if I were you ...

I don't. But Apisai Korisau is the bee's knees, as they say in Australia. He will rip apart the Canterbury defence on more than one occasion.

Got to feel sorry for Luke missing out on a grand final, though.

He's been at Souths since 2007 and played a huge part in their emergence as a team to be reckoned with.

Isaac Luke will also miss out on the first game of the Four Nations, because he received a two game ban.

I don't feel that sorry for Luke. In a year dominated by the injury to Alex McKinnon, its stunning that people were suggesting that he should somehow be pardoned for a lifting tackle simply because it was the week before the Grand Final.

If you watch the tackle its obvious that whilst not at the worst end of the scale of such tackles (he didn't drive SBW into the ground), he clearly and completely unnecessarily lifted SBW into a dangerous position. Why he expected any other result given that he didn't attempt to correct the situation (as many other players have) by trying to bring SBW to the ground safely, I have no idea.

This has been the most annoying part of it, just because its a Grand Final doesn't meant the rules should be any different. As you said with the Alex McKinnon incident, its amazing that these types of tackles are still happening like this. He only has himself to blame for his ban.

I'm amazed more hasn't been done to eradicate spear tackles both in Australia and here. I think, with the speed and power of modern players, it's just a matter of time before there's another incident like McKinnon's or worse.

A lot has been done to be fair in the NRL, and Luke's ban has hopefully created a precedent that sticks in players' minds.