'Very ugly': Max Plath cops two-game suspension for hip-drop on Gold Coast's Phillip Sami
UPDATED: Dolphins lock Max Plath is facing at least two weeks on the sidelines, after he was sin-binned for an awful-looking tackle in his side's win against the Titans.
With 13 minutes left in the second half, Plath and Mark Nicholls both tackled Phillip Sami with the former going low and performing a shocking hip drop.
Plath immediately put his hand up apologising before players from both sides came together with tensions threatening to boil over.
READ MORE: Ref brings end to Aussie star's world title bout
READ MORE: 'Clean it up': Dragons star facing fine for hair pull
READ MORE: Dogs young gun's shocking bravery act revealed
The 22-year-old has now been hit with a grade three dangerous contact charge for the tackle on Sami, which will see him miss two games with an early guilty plea.
If the club opt to fight the charge and lose, Plath will be suspended for three games.
Phillip Sami was upended in an awful looking tackle from Max Plath. Fox League
"That looked ugly," commentator Dan Ginnane said on Fox League.
As Sami was attended to by medical staff, Plath was eventually put on report and binned for the tackle.
"(He) just gets it wrong, it's the right call and puts his team under enormous amounts of pressure," NRL great Corey Parker said.
"It looks very ugly."
Post-match, Dolphins coach Wayne Bennett defended the character of his forward, despite the brutal nature of the tackle.
"It's a difficult area that hip drop. I mean Max Plath hasn't got a dirty bone in his body, so it was never intentional," he said.
"We don't coach it, we don't talk about it, we don't practice it or anything like that. If it's gone wrong then it's gone wrong and we'll just have to pay the consequence of it."
Watch the 2024 NRL premiership live and free on Nine and 9Now.
The Titans led 10-6 at the time but a combination of errors and ill-discipline meant they failed to add any points with the Dolphins one-man down.
A fast start for the Gold Coast meant they led 10-0 inside 12 minutes with Jaimin Jolliffe and Sami scoring.
The Dolphins hit back through Jack Bostock in the 23rd minute before the winger scored a double right on half-time to gift his side a 12-10 lead at half-time.
Gold Coast failed to get back in the game in the second half, with the Dolphins going on a rampage.
Herbie Farnworth, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow and Josh Kerr also scored three unanswered tries after the break.
Sami got his second in the 74th minute but it was too little too late, with the Dolphins winning 30-14.
Trouble for the Titans didn't end there with David Fifita put on report.
David Fifita was put on report for a supposed trip. Fox League
The second-rower lead with his foot when contesting for the ball with Jamayne Isaako and almost tripped the winger.
