It is the opening set of the second half of the 2007 grand final and the Melbourne Storm have the ball on the last tackle. Cameron Smith spirals a pass to Greg Inglis on halfway and the big five-eighth puts a booming kick high above Homebush.
Manly fullback Brett Stewart sets himself 15 metres from his own try line, concentrating purely on the swirling kick. He can hear the Storm players’ footsteps as they trample toward him. What the Eagles ace doesn’t see coming is the ruthless Michael Crocker, who only has eyes for Stewart.
As Stewart takes it, his opposing fullback, Billy Slater, makes contact and a millisecond later Crocker is there, smashing into the custodian like a human missile. Crocker’s intentions are clear as his shoulder slams into Stewart’s head.
A groggy Stewart is carried from the field by two Manly trainers. At that point Melbourne hold a narrow 10-4 lead but go on to easily defeat an Eagles side clearly missing their talented fullback, with Stewart’s absence making it almost impossible for Manly to mount a challenge against the star-studded Storm outfit.
The 1988 decider at the Sydney Football Stadium still polarises opinion between Canterbury-Bankstown and Balmain fans, after Englishman Ellery Hanley was sent loopy by Canterbury icon Terry Lamb. Balmain led 6-4 at the time but never looked the same without Hanley and the Bulldogs got home 24-12.
Whether the incidents orchestrated by Crocker and Lamb were intentional or not isn’t the point. What we can agree on is that both the Eagles and the Tigers were down a man – their best players – for the remainder of the match. Those two grand finals, separated by 7111 days, were altered dramatically and changed the fates of all four teams involved.
In April 2014, concussions are the talk of the town. The National Rugby League has to be commended for their hardline stance, with player welfare on the paddock paramount.
We all know how it goes. A player gets knocked senseless, said player tries to get up and play but is dragged from the field by trainers and then given tests in the dressing rooms to see if they can return. Some have come back and some have been ordered to take an early shower.
But while it is great the NRL is taking concussion seriously, there is a dangerous loophole some teams will take advantage of when the finals roll around, and it could become a gargantuan blight on the game.
At the moment, if a player is knocked out from an illegal tackle, the offending player is simply placed on report while the concussed player is taken from the field.
Apparently send-offs aren’t a part of the game anymore. What if this is a grand final and your team loses because your gun player is rubbed out with concussion?
A few weeks ago, South Sydney lost Inglis in the opening stages against the Wests Tigers after a shot from Tim Simona. That never warranted a send-off but if Inglis is out for the remainder of the match, shouldn’t Souths get an 18th man to replace him if Simona gets to stay on the field?
Even if we do start to see send-offs in the regular season, we certainly won’t see any on grand final night. It simply doesn’t happen, which means an entire NRL season could again be decided by one questionable tackle.
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