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There’s no point in Greg Bird buying a lottery or lotto ticket any time soon, he had all his luck last night at the judiciary.
With his dangerous tackle charge against South Sydney being downgraded, New South Wales backrower Bird copped a suspension of two games, covering the Titans and Origin 1 instead of six games and missing Origin altogether.
What defies sense is how any lifting tackle around the legs that goes above the horizontal is not an automatic sendoff.
Haven’t NRL players learned anything from the Alex McKinnon lift that ended up a spear-tackle and could have been fatal?
Does a player have to die or become a quadriplegic before players wake up to themselves? The judiciary need to make it abundantly clear lifting above the horizontal is strictly taboo and an automatic send off.
Stormer Jordan McLean copped seven weeks suspension for what ended up a spear tackle on McKinnon, and that was a good start to stamp out the dangerous practice.
Just to prove Bird’s lack of football nous, he complained last night after being bashed by a feather, that “he’s confused, he can’t shoulder charge, he can’t tackle below the knees in a third tackle, and he can’t lift.”
Hello, is there anyone home?
What hasn’t been mentioned was after Bird had lifted Souths winger Bryson Goodwin and slammed him on his back, he fell all over Goodwin in a virtual double-tackle.
“I thought it was disappointing I was penalised in the first place,” was another Bird gem.
The next step is exclusively up to the judiciary. It must spell out in words of one syllable how dangerous tackles will be treated from the source.
An automatic send-off and being put on report would be the starting point, plus stick to suspensions of five to seven weeks.
And while Mitchell Pearce didn’t hurt anything except his reputation and the NRL’s on Sunday morning, he’s been suspended by the Roosters for a game and fined $20,000 for bringing the game into disrepute.
Now that is a big drink.
It translates to being available for Origin 1, but doesn’t answer the question whether Blues coach Laurie Daley wants him after his drinking binge and argument with police.
Going in without Bird and Pearce would not have been in the coach’s original thinking. It’s hard enough to nail those men in maroon as has been proved eight times.
But if both Bird and Pearce are out, Luke Lewis, who is on the comeback trail, and Adam Reynolds would be top-shelf replacements.
Let’s pray no more of Laurie Daley’s top men have brain explosions on or off the field in the next couple of weeks.