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In the big SCG match on the weekend, Dragons’ winger Brett Morris had his foot stuck underneath two or three bodies as a Souths player scored.
It made my eyes water as the replays kept rolling on! How his foot didn’t shatter is a miracle and it got me thinking, how are there not more incidents of serious injury in footy?
To read more Brian Smith, outside The Roar, check out his website SmithySpeaks.
Alex McKinnon’s injury has made everyone more aware of the need to make an incredibly tough and risky sport as safe as possible.
However, our game’s authorities have performed a very strong role instigating massive changes motivated by player safety over the decades I have been enjoying it.
Blaming people for any accidental injury is very poor form. Rugby league is such a tough sport to play at any level and as long as players are playing it in a good spirit and administrators are making well thought-out decisions to make it as safe as possible – while still allowing for that strong, physical competitiveness to shine through – no one should be taking pot-shots.
To not factor in the professionalism of the past 30 to 40 years when assessing this rare and tragic accident is to disregard sports science and medicine.
Just look at what the players are physically capable of every time we watch them play. The game’s competitiveness has been propelled by finding new and faster ways to play. Deeper analysis of plays and players has re-set targets almost weekly so that every single aspect of preparation and performance is challenged – can we do it better or more often?
From time to time, this has led to trends that do not enhance the fans’ viewing. Our administrators have quickly adjusted, upgraded and modernised.
But to suggest these changes led to this freak occurrence is to suggest that improving the rubber of the tyres of an F1 car made it go faster and therefore led to some freak motor sport accident that injured or even killed a driver.
Let’s not be afraid of it – there needs to be another change made to the rules of footy, but to suggest it will completely remove any further accidental injury of a serious kind is absurd. It is just what is needed now to make the game safer.
The specific change we need to make now to tackling is to take the position of a tackler’s hand out from between the legs of the tackled player. If a player pulls the leg of a tackled player – such as takes his opponent’s foot off the ground – a penalty should be awarded immediately.
For any player joining a tackle in progress this would mean instead of grabbing and tending to lift the leg of the tackled player, he would finish on the ground with his opponent, arms around his legs or hips.
A tackler would need to make a driving-type action or simply wrap his arms and slide down the tackled player’s legs, but always start with contact above the knees.
It’s simple enough, not too tough to identify for the ref and might remove those last few bits of what complicates the roles of multiple tacklers.
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