Most contact sports throughout the world hand down suspensions for on-field indiscretions based upon precedence and the severity of the act.
The NRL refereeing and judiciary process is no different when it comes to punishing foul play, however the current system appears to be in need of a major overhaul.
At present referees appear unwilling to send a player directly from the field for most major indiscretions. Oddly the lack of on-field dismissals over the past decade appears to correlate with the introduction of the video referee. Most would think that the ability to review the incident would have made the task far easier when deciding if a player should be given their marching orders.
I’ve seen numerous games where foul play has robbed a team of one of their stars for the majority of the match. The guilty party has been allowed to stay on the field and quite often goes on to help his team to victory.
What does the team who has been hard done by receive? A penalty and one free interchange. What do they lose? Quite often, the player for the rest of the match, and the match itself.
This major disadvantage now appears to be further intensified by the introduction of the concussion rule and no allowance for an 18th man to join the bench.
Fast forward a few days, and the offender meets with the NRL judiciary (or takes an early guilty plea) and receives a suspension.
Teams who play against the guilty party will receive an entire game where this player is disqualified from participating. What did these teams suffer to be given an easier task of winning in the weeks that proceed the incident? Absolutely nothing.
I find this system frustrating to say the least. I would like to see the judiciary laws amended to ensure that the team who has been fouled is given an advantage at some stage in the future, especially if they didn’t receive compensation by way of player dismissal during the match.
As part of the suspension penalty, the guilty player would be automatically disqualified from playing on the next occasion that the two clubs meet. This would provide some semblance of justice to the affected player, team, coach, and fans.
State of Origin fixtures would be a given. Dirty play that is deemed to be sufficient of suspension would automatically result in the guilty player being banned from the next Origin match. A lot of the niggle that we witnessed in Game 2 of Origin this year would clearly not have been on show if this fairer system of punishment been in place.
What I’d like to see in the first instance though, is the ability for the video referee to also be able to send players off for any major indiscretion. A member of the judiciary panel could sit in the same box with the video referee and assist them in making a unanimous decision.
Surely there’s a remedy out there that will provide instant relief to this long-term pain when foul play continues to assist everyone but the innocent parties.
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