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It was with more than a little irony that I watched Greg Bird smash Newcastle Knights playmaker Jarrod Mullen late and from behind.
In a weekend full of inexplicable officiating blunders, Dave Taylor got reported for it.
Just a week after Mullen’s teammate Beau Scott gave Cowboys playmaker Johnathan Thurston some rough treatment, Scott’s Origin teammate took the Novocastrian five-eighth out of the game.
Michael Buettner from the match review committee said Bird’s late hit was “a concerning act” but then didn’t actually charge him with anything.
While we are on the topic of “concerning acts” there were three committed by the video referees over the weekend.
Two disallowed tries were clearly legitimate, and one try was allowed that clearly wasn’t. That Gavin Badger allowed the Dane Gagai try against the Titans when Korbin Sims clearly knocked on was outrageous.
In a game decided by two points it was a crucial and inexplicable blunder.
Shayne Hayne’s denial of Dallin Watene-Zelezniak’s fair try went a long way to costing the Panthers any chance against the Roosters. There was no angle that showed anything but Watene-Zelezniak having control of the ball, yet Hayne hit the red button.
Finally, Steve Chiddy decided that Blake Austin had performed a double movement in rolling over the stripe when Blind Freddy could see there was more than enough momentum to call it a try. As dreadful as the Raiders were in the second half – and they were abysmal – the Dragons would probably not have pegged back a 24-point lead.
Ragnar Lothbrok look-a-like Blake Austin cut straight to the heart of the matter in response to my tweet on the above three blunders: “I reckon video refs’ hands are tied with the system. It’s a system that seemed good at first but the refs are guessing.”
Once the on-field referee states his opinion – which must often be a guess – the video ref must conclusively disprove that view. If they can’t definitively do that then the on-field ref’s guess stands.
The video replays clearly disproved the on-field ref’s guess in all three instances, and common sense should have reversed all of them. It didn’t. Mr Archer, if the ref isn’t sure, just get him to ask the video ref to check it all, like they do in Super Rugby. Sure they’ll get some wrong still, but they’ll get a whole lot more right.
However, the hit on Mullen was the worst act of the weekend. It was late and it was from behind. At very best it was reckless, at worst deliberate and cynical. That Bird will face no charge basically means that it is open season on playmakers.
The precedent has been set. Hit ’em late and hit ’em from behind. It’s concerning, but it won’t be stopped. If there is an NRL coach who doesn’t now have as part of his strategy to have his men smash their opposition’s 6 and 7 – and the 1 and 9 if they are creative types – they are unlikely to hold their position for long.
Targeting the playmakers is nothing new, but the level it has escalated to in recent seasons has me questioning if there is a place in the game for smaller players anymore.
To put up with the constant hammering that will surely get aimed at them, is it really sustainable to be under six foot tall and 90 kilos in weight? Rugby league is becoming a very big man’s game more and more. In the last 10 seasons of State of Origin there have only been 37 players selected that were under six foot in height for the 340 available spots.
Of those, only 9 have been regular fixtures in the sides.
What positions did those 37 play in? Two were hookers, one was a prop, five were back rowers, one was a centre, five were wingers, six were fullbacks and sixteen were halves.
Sure enough there are players under six foot who are just fine at Origin level.
Paul Gallen and Sam Thaiday – both over 100kg – number among those 37, as do Robbie Farah, Glenn Stewart and Danny Nutley. But in general, if you want to play Origin and you aren’t over six foot, you will be lucky to play even one.
Why? Because you are unlikely to be able to out jump the likes of six foot five inch Daniel Tupou, who also weighs in at 100kg, or tackle the flying Greg Inglis, who is the same height as Tupou but slightly heavier.
The only real exceptions to this selection rule are the ball players: hookers, five-eighths and halfbacks – with the occasional fullback thrown in.
Ball playing and playmaking requires great coordination and fantastic manual dexterity. While bigger men aren’t precluded from these attributes, they are found far more readily in smaller men.
While I have declared my love for the big hits of rugby league, the game would be nothing without the magic of the little men. As hard and robust as some of our 6s and 7s are, they are smaller and will not be able to take as much punishment as a larger player.
If smaller players aren’t afforded better protection we risk beating them out of the game and turning the game into a two-dimensional sludge of a contest.
Think of the genius we could have smashed out of the game if bashing small men late had always been OK:
• Clive Churchill – 5’9
• Steve Mortimer – 5’8
• Peter Sterling – 5’10
• Cliff Lyons – 5’10
• Ricky Stuart – 5’9
• Terry Lamb – 5’5
• Alan Langer – 5’5
• Andrew Johns – 5’10
So it is a no brainer that Tony Archer needs to really clamp down on illegal targeting of playmakers.
The other problem is, even if afforded proper protection, it is still fair game to run at a smaller player. Dave Taylor has made what name he has by running over smaller men one-on-one. If you want to make it in the NRL you need to be able to tackle Dave, among others, by yourself.
However, many of the smaller halves can’t. So where do you put them? If you have them defend at 6 or 7 then the opposition will run at them all day to tire them out and thereby blunt their attack. If you put them at fullback they are little more than a speed bump for the likes of Inglis, Manu Vatuvei, Semi Radradra, Akuila Uate etc. So there are really only two options:
1. Run them behind the line to call the defence, and try to pull and hold down those that break through, like how Brett Kimmorley and Ricky Stuart used to; or
2. Have them defend on the wing like Preston Campbell did.
Neither of these are perfect options of course, as to do number one you have to be good at calling the defence, and in option two you might still get isolated one-on-one against a behemoth.
I fear that the smaller men, with all their entertainment value, may disappear from the game. The long and short of it is that if you want to make it as a smaller man in the NRL you better be really good in attack and work very hard on your defence to limit your liability to the team – and you better hope the officials have your back.