South Sydney's George Burgess throws elbows in Rabbitohs' win over Knights
Updated
A George Burgess elbow has soured South Sydney's dramatic 24-18 win over Newcastle.
Souths overcame a two-point deficit at the break, but it may come at a big cost as Burgess could face time on the sideline for elbowing Knights forward Mitchell Barnett in the head during the first half at Hunter Stadium.
Burgess, who knocked a ball on in the first tackle from the kick-off for the second time in the game, lashed out at Barnett after the hit.
After the elbow, Burgess threw caution to the wind, unleashing a backfist and a number of hooks.
He was sin-binned as a result of the incident, and also placed on report, but coach Michael Maguire refused to comment on the strike after the match.
"That's a discipline area — we'll talk about internally," Maguire said.
"But it put us under a lot of pressure so we need to make sure that we're a lot better than that."
Rabbitohs' centre Hymel Hunt may also find himself in trouble after flooring Knights full-back Brendan Elliot with a high shot.
In further concerns for the Rabbitohs, half-back Adam Reynolds appeared to carry a right shoulder injury for most the match, just a week after returning from appendix surgery.
Reynolds said after the match he had suffered from whiplash and had striking pain down from his neck, but Maguire is confident it wasn't anything serious.
It comes two weeks after Souths were criticised for allowing captain Greg Inglis to play on after tearing his ACL.
Hodkinson sin-binned for dissent
Knights captain Trent Hodkinson was also sin-binned late in the game, after telling referee David Munro he had "just cost [Newcastle] the game" when Souths won a scrum against the feed.
"Sit down, you can't say that," Munro said as he sent Hodkinson from the field.
It killed off the depleted Knights, who were already reduced to two on the bench through concussions and had Nathan Ross struggling with an ankle injury, prompting coach Nathan Brown to again call for an 18th player to be available for head knocks.
"We're not addressing the bigger problem," he said.
"There are injured players being forced to stay on the field because we don't have any players left."
AAP/ABC
Topics: nrl, rugby-league, sport, newcastle-2300, sydney-2000, nsw, australia
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