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It is official, the game we once knew as rugby league is dead. The fabric of the game has not just been tarnished; it has been burnt to a crisp and buried six feet underground.
Media reports on Sunday confirmed that NRL Chief Executive Dave Smith had contacted referees boss Daniel Anderson and directed him to implement far stricter penalties for players involved in any kind of fight.
If a punch is thrown, that player will be sin binned.
Perhaps in this day and age rugby league needs to think about its image. But the way this has been handled and the reactive decision of NRL administrators is atrocious.
“We need to make sure our game can recruit young kids,” Anderson told The Sunday Telegraph.
“We’ve got a duty to the community and to people involved in our sport.
“There are a lot of swinging voters on our game who could be turned away by certain incidents.
“The product has to be palatable and accommodate all people who want to be involved in the game. It’s the mums and dads who decide if their kids get to play rugby league.”
Two grown men playing the toughest sport in the world in the cauldron that is State of Origin had a disagreement. Two grown men paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a year and with the pressure of two feuding states behind them had a scrap.
Since Paul Gallen and Nate Myles came face to face at ANZ Stadium, a small minority went into meltdown. That small minority bitched and moaned so loud and for so long that the NRL panicked and hit that red button again.
The same one that exterminated the shoulder charge has now ripped another cog from the machine.
People have compared Gallen’s fists of fury to street violence and death. Sorry but that’s a shocking comparison. They have nothing to do with each other. Have these people ever seen the Ultimate Fighting Championship?
Worry about cage fighting before you attack rugby league.
Then there were the parents worried about their children emulating Gallen. These are the same parents that blame Gallen and then go out to JB Hi-Fi and buy their kids movies or games chock full of battles, violence, or worse.
Stop blaming rugby league. Communicate to your child to help them understand why two professional athletes use physical force in a physical game.
How can the NRL possibly enforce this rule anyway?
If tempers do flare in game two at Suncorp Stadium and all hell breaks loose, will the referees send all 26 players from the field?
This game is played with passion and pride and a desperation that sometimes sees emotions spill over. How can a banker sitting behind a big shiny desk make this decision?
Smith is worried about the game’s image. Physicality is our game’s image. This is overkill and reactive political correctness at its ghastly best.
We are what we are and that’s what separates us from the rest.
What the hell are we doing to our game?
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