Is biff really damaging rugby league?
Roar Rookie By Nick the Rooster, 2 Sep 2011 Nick the Rooster is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- 2011 NRL season, David Gallop, Manly Sea Eagles, Melbourne Storm, NRL, Rugby League, State Of Origin
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After listening to David Gallop talk about the Manly versus Melbourne brawl on NRL on Fox last night, I started to think about whether or not fights like the one between Stewart and Blair were really damaging the game.
There is always a lot of talk about cleaning up the game so that parents will encourage their kids to play rugby league, but what about the people that love watching rugby league because of it’s brutality and the odd stink?
Has anyone ever stopped to consider the number of people attracted to the game who are drawn to the anticipation of a potential blow up?
State of Origin is a great example of this. The big fights over the years including Lewis vs Geyer, Beetson vs Cronin, Harragon vs Bella, Hopoate vs Moore to name a few have made it what it is today.
It seems to me that the NRL, NSWRL, QRL and sponsors have been happy to cash in on the brutality of State of Origin over the years, so what makes this incident any different?
I’m not agreeing with two blokes punching the life out of each on the sideline, and agree it’s not a good look for the game. However, I would like to question those who make it seem like the sky is falling every time something like this happens.
Are there double standards? And are we being a bit precious?
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September 2nd 2011 @ 6:26am
GoGWS said | September 2nd 2011 @ 6:26am | Report comment
If you want to watch a fight how about going to the boxing?….with the exception of Barry Hall (Sydney Swans), none of the footballers from any code can fight anyway…..a quaint idea I know, but perhaps people who go to the football actually want to see football…
September 2nd 2011 @ 8:23am
The Bush said | September 2nd 2011 @ 8:23am | Report comment
Barry Hall can only fight when the opposition have their backs to him. I would back a tonne of blokes in League against Barry Hall (as tough as he may well be).
There is a reason why so many of our current boxers are ex-League players and not ex-Aussie Rules Players…
September 2nd 2011 @ 12:40pm
GoGWS said | September 2nd 2011 @ 12:40pm | Report comment
Hall hit Staker from the front and dropped him with one punch….. and he’d make very short work of NRL players as well…..wouldn’t phase him ..
the point is that NRL and AFL players aren’t paid to fight…they are paid to play… and if you’re throwing punches you’ve lost your cool and are not helping the team…. apart from the bad image it gives the game, the basic thing you’ve done is let your team mates down because of penalties/free kicks and suspensions….it’s stupid and undisciplined…. and when Barry Hall did drop Staker he didn’t run around saying how great he was – he acknowledges it was a stupid thing to do and that he let his team mates down…
September 2nd 2011 @ 1:52pm
pike64 said | September 2nd 2011 @ 1:52pm | Report comment
if barry hall could really fight then he wouldn’t have wasted his time in AFL when he could have made millions as a heavyweight boxing champion – unless his skills or ticker weren’t up to it. as for taking on League players in a stoush you are dead set dreaming. MMA has shown boxing to be a highly overated ‘fighting’ art and the guys with grappling skills usually defeat the strikers. hence why you can still find a pure grappler in MMA but not a pure striker as they’ve had to learn grappling to be competitive. i would suggest that Hall would struggle in a fight against a similarly sized league player once he was grappled and floored for the ground and pound.
September 2nd 2011 @ 8:58pm
GoGWS said | September 2nd 2011 @ 8:58pm | Report comment
mate have you ever thought he preferred aussie rules??…. not everything is about the cash… and I reckon Hall’s scrapping/grappling skills are fine… my money is on Hall any day…
September 2nd 2011 @ 10:08pm
pike64 said | September 2nd 2011 @ 10:08pm | Report comment
to gogws – very funny post. for a minute there i thought you were being serious. if he preferred AFL to boxing well that would most probably be because he was better at AFL than boxing and he’s not in the upper echelon of AFL players. i doubt whether he would be much of a boxer when compared to genuine boxers and not other AFL players. so stop talking up his UNTESTED and UNPROVEN boxing ability.
September 3rd 2011 @ 4:03pm
GoGWS said | September 3rd 2011 @ 4:03pm | Report comment
well it’s not a totally untested ability is it now….Danny Green took Hall into the ring to have a look at him and offered to manage him as a fighter… he must have had some ability otherwise green wouldn’t have bothered…also when you see the Hall-Staker punch it’s a hell of a lot cleaner and more clinical than any punch I’ve seen from an NRL player…
September 3rd 2011 @ 7:24pm
pike64 said | September 3rd 2011 @ 7:24pm | Report comment
show me any evidence that Hall has fought professionally against another boxer. you can’t can you? so his ability remains UNTESTED and therefore UNPROVEN. your hero worship of Barry Hall doesn’t change this fact. if your Danny Green story is true then that, at best, shows that Green thought he had potential – as did the fellow who managed Hopoate to an insignificant boxing career. every hack that plies his trade in the ring now also once had ‘potential’ and went on to be glorious nobodies.
as for the hit on staker – are you serious? of course it was cleaner and more clinical than any punch you’ve seen from an NRL player because it was a KINGHIT!!!! Staker was doing that pointless push and shove and grab and niggle that goes on in an AFL game and Hall turned around and KINGHIT him. that is not what a fighter does. that is what a drunk in a pub does. most NRL fights involve the players at least looking at each other before punches are thrown. that was a luxury Hall didn’t allow for Staker.
September 2nd 2011 @ 1:28pm
Redb said | September 2nd 2011 @ 1:28pm | Report comment
I think you’ll find Barry Hall’s indiscretions have been ‘disguised’ because the penalties are much harsher in AFL. In the NRL two blokes they can go toe to toe, tehre is no fighting allowed in AFL.
You also probably dont know how many AFL players can box, I can name at least two Essendon players who can techincially box, Lovett-Murray & Melksham.
September 2nd 2011 @ 7:44am
oikee said | September 2nd 2011 @ 7:44am | Report comment
If you think this is the last fight on a football field, your living with the pixies.
Their will always be fights, controlled aggression is part of the game, it goes wrong nearly every weekend. After the Friday game we had 2 skirmesh’s at other games.
This was more about the running in by players and bench getting involved. It has already been dealt with, players now have to be escorted from the field on send off. As Freddie would say, Play On.
September 2nd 2011 @ 10:10am
Jeff said | September 2nd 2011 @ 10:10am | Report comment
Where are the reports from those other 2 skirmishes,,, ok, the press didn’t blow em out of all proportion and the two most admired/disliked teams in the league were’nt involved!. another case of Knee jerk reactions and no consistency from NRL. is this asking too much???????.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see Manly’s ‘stand in’ players ‘going the bash’ against Brisbane, they know now that the punishments are weak and they can weaken Brisbane for the finals, Des will see this as a win/win situation..!. he gets to rest his best 2 play-makers and has a open ticket to slow down the main opposition in the run to the finals. my bet is that someone will ‘headhunt’ D Lockyer!.
This is a final round, full of emotion and somewhere this emotion will boil over. Manly v Brisbane with an anti Manly, sellout crowd, is the Colosseum awaiting the gladiators….. wouldn’t miss this game for quids!.
September 2nd 2011 @ 10:46am
Storm gal said | September 2nd 2011 @ 10:46am | Report comment
oh. jeff. i am so looking forward to seeing this game i think that watnough will try to get thiaday angry. both of these players get angry easy i hope that Manly not injure darren he is good and will only play a few more games
September 2nd 2011 @ 11:16am
oikee said | September 2nd 2011 @ 11:16am | Report comment
Strueth, and they call me crazy, mate forget the conspiracy thoeries, they wont try it on at the Broncos, even Des knows he would have his head on the chopping block if he did. Your playing at the big ground now, a sellout 52 thousand and a real stadium, not a mudpit.
Sorry Mals, keep throwing that one in to help Dessy out, get him a new stadium.
If any player put a foot outta line Gallop would throw the book at Manly. The issue has been dealt with, time for footy.
Gee-whiz, even i am not that paranoid, Manly have never caused trouble at Suncorp. They normally beat us, but they dont cause any trouble.
September 2nd 2011 @ 12:02pm
Jeff said | September 2nd 2011 @ 12:02pm | Report comment
Oikee. — If your crowd gives Manly enough ‘stick’. there are players on that team that WILL respond, I agree with Storm Gal’s comment that they may target Thaiday and Lockyer, Sam has a short fuse and they are playing an aggressive forward at stand off against Darren. no conspiracy mate, it’s on the cards’..
Remember you heard it first from ‘Mad Jeff’…. lol.. I would love to have a few XXXX with you at this game mate.. but can’t make it outta Vic….
September 2nd 2011 @ 4:50pm
Mals said | September 2nd 2011 @ 4:50pm | Report comment
No offence taken Oikee, Brookvale Oval will be redeveloped just a case of when not if.
Nope Manly don’t need to go the biff against the Brisbane Miniature Ponies ,all they need to do is run at Yow Yeh & it rains tries at Suncorp
September 2nd 2011 @ 5:30pm
oikee said | September 2nd 2011 @ 5:30pm | Report comment
No worries Jeff, that was last year Mal, you must remember me saying that YowYeh kept coming in off his wing, he has fixed that this year. Looking forward to the master run rings around baby face Burher.
Also looking forward to see Rosie run off a few kilos, chasing our backs all day long.
September 2nd 2011 @ 7:49am
Crosscoder said | September 2nd 2011 @ 7:49am | Report comment
One of the rare occasions, I agree with GoGWS.
People go to see tries scored ,tremendous hits,and the likes of Benji Marshall in action,not to see some clown show he is a cardboard replica of Ali.Ask the mums,who have the influence as to where youngsters play,and one might get the answer.
A game can be brutal,tough,unforgiving and indeed brusiing and hurtfu as need be .Jack Gibson’s approach was to play it as tough as possible within the framework of the rules of the game,and gave little admiration to the thumpers.
The best players in the game in the last 20 odd years,were the likes of ET,Lockyer,Marshall,Thurston,Fittler,Johns,Menzies,Pearce et al.None of these guys need to throw a haymake to prove their toughness.In fact it was their playing skills that brought people through the gate,not the size of their fists.
Why in God’s name ,is my post awaiting moderation.Is this North Korea:?
September 2nd 2011 @ 8:19am
jamesb said | September 2nd 2011 @ 8:19am | Report comment
what happened last friday night, with two blokes fighting on the sidelines after been sin binned, it rarely happens.
September 2nd 2011 @ 8:27am
The Bush said | September 2nd 2011 @ 8:27am | Report comment
As long as those who do it are punished (but not to the point where they stamp it out of the game), I don’t mind a bit of biff. You need to keep it in balance though (through reasonable punishments). I doubt I’d wanna see it every game, but a couple of times a season adds some spice to the event – it shows when two (2) teams really, really hate each other (as they do in Manly and Melbournes case).
It becomes a problem, however, not just because Mum picks the next sport down the list, but also because of the inherent danger in fighting. Tackling a player in League carries enough risk of injury in-of-itself, the danger that someone can be killed by a wayward punch is much higher. Remember, they are trained how to tackle, not how to fight.
September 2nd 2011 @ 8:45am
Sean Fagan said | September 2nd 2011 @ 8:45am | Report comment
Won’t matter much what mum thinks if little Johnny doesn’t suggest playing RL in the first place.
More mothers watching that game or seeing highlights of the match would have been worried over the injury suffered by David Williams than grown men behaving like boofheads – the latter can be used by parents to explain a life lesson in how not to conduct yourself, but the former (which in itself was extremely rare) is what really worries parents who aren’t that familiar with the game.
September 2nd 2011 @ 9:17am
gurudoright said | September 2nd 2011 @ 9:17am | Report comment
Crosscoder, although I agree that most of those players you mention don’t need to throw haymakers to prove how tough they are, Benji Marshall isn’t one of them. I have recalled him throwing the first punch in at least 3 games from the top of my head including this that resulted in the tigers being denied a try
Don’t get me wrong, he is an awesome player but if he gets rattled he just want to fight.
September 2nd 2011 @ 1:28pm
Redb said | September 2nd 2011 @ 1:28pm | Report comment
I dont think it harms rugby league as long this sort of incident does not happen every week.