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PRICHARD: NRL must throw the book at the Bulldogs

5th April, 2015
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Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs captain James Graham will miss the next four games. AAP Image/Cameron Spencer
Expert
5th April, 2015
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5196 Reads

I’m so over the abuse of referees that it doesn’t bother me how hard the NRL wants to hit James Graham, David Klemmer and the Canterbury club over what happened on Good Friday. The harder the better.

Everyone has had the entire weekend to consider the events at ANZ Stadium and form a view of what should happen from here. My view is the same now as it was on Friday.

What happened was appalling and there have got to be heavy penalties.

The sight of two big forwards standing over referee Gerard Sutton and berating him, with Graham pointing at him in an intimidating manner and Klemmer swearing at him, is one of the worst looks imaginable for the game.

Klemmer was sin-binned.

It was so late in the game he wasn’t going to get back on the field anyway, so the effect was the same as a send-off, but in reality he should have been sent off.

Graham should have at least been sin-binned as well, although Sutton was probably being smart in not inflaming the already volatile situation further by doing that.

Graham should face a contrary conduct charge for his abuse of the referee and a dangerous contact charge for his botched attempt at a charge-down that injured Rabbitohs halfback Adam Reynolds.

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Klemmer should face a contrary conduct charge for his abuse of the referee.

It doesn’t matter whether Graham’s contact with Reynolds was accidental or not – Graham was responsible for it because he didn’t take enough care.

If you correctly attempt a charge-down on a kick, whether it be a shot at field goal or a punt down-field, one of two things should happen – you either block the ball, or, if you miss the ball, you avoid anything more than minor contact with the player as well.

You don’t end up cannoning into his legs in a dangerous manner.

As far as the bottle-throwing by irresponsible ‘fans’ at the end of the match goes, can anyone argue with them being banned for life from attending NRL games if they can be identified?

One of the match officials was injured in the act of trying to avoid being hit, which makes the act even more serious.

The scenes we saw at the end of the game, when security officers were forced to try to shield match officials from being hit by missiles, were disgusting. Incidents like that do massive damage to the image of the game.

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Fining the club and stripping the team of competition points are options the NRL can use as penalties in such circumstances.

The league will consider all of its options and so it should. If it was to fine the Bulldogs and/or strip them of points, or threaten the stripping of points if there is a repeat of poor crowd behaviour this season, I wouldn’t argue with the decision.

There has been a lot of debate about whether there was a connection between the actions of Graham and Klemmer and the actions of the minority who threw bottles.

I can’t see how there isn’t some connection.

Fans react to what they regard as unfair treatment of their team and if they see their players going over the top, then the more extreme among them are likely to become more frenzied as a result.

People have also questioned whether Graham was the right choice as Canterbury captain, after Michael Ennis left the club at the end of last season. Based on Friday’s evidence, the answer is no.

It must be hard enough as it is to get young people to join the refereeing ranks without them seeing refs at the top level having to put up with this sort of rubbish.

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