Melbourne Storm captain Christian Welch has revealed he believes he landed on the ground first, and that his hip drop tackle on Royce Hunt was "ugly".
The comments came with Welch quizzed over a possible State of Origin selection during Game 2 for the Queensland Maroons, after he served as 19th man during Game 1.
Melbourne, who beat the Sharks 54 points to 10 on Sunday afternoon, responded to criticism over last week's effort in the best way possible, with Welch leading from the front.
The Storm captain, who missed the 2022 series with injury, was expected to play in Game 1 but was ultimately overlooked by coach Billy Slater as Queensland worked their way through a plethora of options in the forwards.
Welch was one of the options to come into the side for Game 2 after Jai Arrow was ruled out with an ankle injury, but will now miss the game after being sin binned and charged over a hip drop tackle on Cronulla prop Royce Hunt.
The match review committee elected to charge Welch with a Grade 2 dangerous contact charge for the offence, which lands him with a one-match suspension if he takes an early guilty plea
Welch said post-game that while his first concern was for Hunt, he believes he landed on the ground first rather than the back of the opposition props legs.
"Probably my first concern is the player [Royce Hunt]. I just hope he is alright. You don't go out there to injure someone like that, so I hope he is alright. I've gone and apologised," Welch said.
"I don't know. I haven't really watched it to be honest, but I think I landed on the ground first and I think it was just a bit of an ugly tackle, but I don't know.
"I wasn't in the team for Game 1, so I don't even know if I'd be picked to be honest but let's wait and see what happens."
His coach Craig Bellamy said he believes Welch should have come straight into the side for Game 2 if available, which is expected to be named on Monday morning - reports suggest Moeaki Foutaika and Jeremiah Nanai will be the two forwards added to the team, leaving Welch on the outside.
"Yeah, I think so," Bellamy said when asked whether Welch should be picked.
"He has been pretty consistent for us all year, and especially with Jai Arrow being out, I'd imagine Christian would be next in line. He was the 19th [man], so I'd like to think that."
Bellamy also said one of Welch's teammates in Xavier Coates should be picked for Game 2 after missing out on the series-opener, despite being an incumbent option in the side.
Coates was ultimately overlooked on the wings for Murray Taulagi and Brisbane Broncos' young gun Selwyn Cobbo.
Cobbo is set to be ruled out of Game 2 with injury though, and Bellamy believes it should be Coates going straight back into the side ahead of the likes of Dane Gagai or Corey Oates.
"I thought he would have been picked in the first one with all due respect, but having said that, Billy [Slater] has a tough job. When you start talking State of Origin, there is a whole heap of players names that come up that they'd fit in that side good, but it's really hard to pick 17," Bellamy said.
"He carried on today with his form. He has been really good over the last six or seven weeks and he is a wonderfully hard worker. Things he wants to work on in his game, he always puts his time and effort in."
Origin 2 will be played on Wednesday, June 21 in Brisbane, while the Storm will likely head into next week's trip to play the Wests Tigers without Coates, Cameron Munster and Harry Grant.
