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A decade ago the NRL brought in the golden point rule so that fans could go home content with a clear winner and loser.
For Jordan McLean, Alex McKinnon, rugby league and anyone who cares about any of the above, no such luxury would be afforded by the NRL judiciary last night.
With a potential suspension for McLean’s part in the tackle on the injured McKinnon ranging from 2-11 weeks, as is often the case in the game the powers that be decided to tuck the ball under their arm and run straight up the middle. A seven-week ban would hope to avoid any controversy lurking on the edges.
But, was there likely to be any in the first place?
Was there a single rugby league fan that saw McLean as anything but a young player caught up in a mildly bad tackle that ended in a way he could never have imagined?
Would there have been an outcry if a ban matching the grade of lift itself, maybe somewhere in the three-week range, had been applied rather than taking on another month for the resulting terrible injury?
It seems highly unlikely. As much as footy loves to create heroes and villains, most of us just want to give McLean a pat on the head and tell him to hang in there.
Unfortunately there is a whiff of appeasing outside elements when it comes to punishing McLean.
Perhaps it is a case of tragedy bringing out the best in rugby league, but while the usual bickering and soundbite attention seeking has largely made way for a sense solemnity, the same cannot be said for our society at large.
If the needless slow-mo repetitions of McKinnon’s tackle aren’t enough to make you sick, the job will be done by the conga line of clowns wanting to out-scoop one another or push their agendas by telling us how Alex’s injury was no doubt caused by ‘rugby squadrons coached to spear-tackle players headfirst into scrums for a goal’.
Such grandstanding only dehumanises the issue, and unfortunately as young players with low profiles McKinnon and McLean were always more susceptible to ending up as pawns in some fool’s game.
Granted, a three-week ban does not sound like much of a punishment for a tackle that left the ball runner with a broken neck. But does seven? Would twelve? Would two hundred?
Remorse will always be Mclean’s biggest punishment, and the way things appear right now, he’s dealing with it by the truckload.
Giving McLean a suspension that was more in line with the severity of the tackle would have been inconvenient for the NRL’s publicity department, particularly at a time when other health issues in the game are under the spotlight.
But it would have been the truth.
If we’re all going to come away from this as losers, can’t we at least do so with honesty?
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