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The newest bugbear in rugby league has plagued soccer for years – players diving or laying on the ground after a tackle in order to win a penalty.
I have seen it maybe a dozen times over the first four rounds and I fear it could become the biggest blight on the modern game.
Take a look for yourself this weekend.
A player cops a whack on his head – intentional or accidental – and chances are he will stay on the ground awaiting a blast from the referee’s whistle.
Sometimes he’ll be urged by his teammates to stay down and lie ‘doggo’ while the man in the middle asks his video refs to check for any illegality.
It seems that it’s getting harder for referees to do their jobs with the dawn of every new season. This year we’ve seen the NRL introduce a strict new concussion policy, and of course that is to be commended.
But gone are the days when a ref could see through a charade and order a player to get up and play the ball if any sort of contact has been made with the head.
In the current climate, it would be a dangerous practice for any whistle-blower to demand a player get to his feet and play on, concussed or otherwise.
Down through the years we have referred to uninjured players feigning injury as ‘foxing’, but now refs cannot make an instinctive call in case there is a problem with the player laying on the deck.
Rugby league has always been a collision sport. Sometimes footballers’ heads will cop an errant blow or heavy bump.
That shouldn’t mean that the ball carrier automatically stays down. If it does we will be watching some hybrid game in which penalties and free kicks are almost as vital as tries, goals and field goals.
Some are saying that coaches are encouraging players to stay down for penalties. That may well be the case as these guys will go to extraordinary lengths for a winning advantage.
But I’d like to think they have more integrity than that.
“We do not lie down,” was the proud insistence from last year’s premiership-winning coach, Trent Robinson, after his team’s 8-0 loss to Manly.
“We don’t play for penalties. We openly talk about it.
“We say we are not going to lie down, we are going to stand up. We are going to keep fighting.”
OK, that’s one coach speaking earnestly about this important aspect of his coaching philosophy. I’d welcome a similar assurance from each of the other NRL mentors.
And if our coaches are not coaching players to stay down for penalties, then it must be the footballers themselves.
Honestly and integrity will have to come into their performances if this alarming trend is to be snuffed out.
I, for one, won’t be holding my breath.
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