‘Long hair? Fair game’: Why it’s time to stop punishing NRL players for pulling hair

June 5, 2026 — 3:30pm

You have reached your maximum number of saved items.

Remove items from your saved list to add more.

And here we all were thinking the NRL had run out of things to over-complicate.

Who actually knows what constitutes a sin-binning these days? What about a disruptor? Or a set restart?

Well, now you can throw the good old-fashioned hair-pull into the conversation.

How else do you explain a couple of ugly incidents from last weekend’s NRL action that ended with completely different outcomes?

Last Saturday night, down at AAMI Park, Roosters back-rower Siua Wong yanked on Melbourne playmaker Cameron Munster’s locks. The next day, he was charged with contrary conduct, and slapped with a $1800 fine.

Then on Sunday, at CommBank Stadium, Penrith’s Luke Garner grabbed hold of Warriors cult hero Dallin Watene-Zelezniak and did his best to spin him around by his long, frilly tresses.

There was no penalty, and no sign of........

© The Sydney Morning Herald