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The Roar

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MASCORD: Sending players off is in the rules, so it's time to use it

14th April, 2015
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The rules for touching referees need to be made consistent. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)
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14th April, 2015
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Lots of codswallop has been said and written over the past couple of days about the send-off rule and what has happened to it.

Is it dead? Is that okay? When should it be used? It all comes down to this: if there is no doubt you will be suspended for at least a week for an offence, then you should be sent off.

It’s completely illogical to suggest it is okay for a player to continue in a given match after committing an offence which will certainly see him miss next week’s match. It just makes no sense, objectively.

That’s why we invented what is known in some parts of the world as a red card. It’s a symbol that says “Go away, you are not fit to continue in this sporting contest as you are a danger to others”.

I would far rather see referees take decisive action on tackles like Tyson Frizell’s than on tries. Tries don’t threaten anyone’s health.

The match review system is intended as a net, not a platform. But I would go a step further than simply referring to that body incidents which are not quite serious enough for a dismissal.

I’d start using the sin bin for foul play – as happens in England.

If Tyson Frizell was not worthy of being dismissed (I think he was), then he should have been dispatched to the sin bin.

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Rugby league does tamper with its rules far too often but these sorts of interpretations are in the rules already. They just need to be activated.

As this column has said before, now that the concussion rule has been beefed up, we need a commensurate crackdown on tackles that can give people concussion.

Otherwise we create an incentive to knock people out.

***

Last week’s column about cultural change in rugby league was made in the emotional aftermath of Good Friday’s events.

I liked the response from The Magic Man: “Make big culture changes now and the NRL will lose about 50k in fans… but in five years have a million more fans bashing down the door. That’s real reform. I’m a fan of the game first and my club second… make the changes.”

Von Neumann also went to a lot of trouble with a detailed comment. Thanks for taking the time.

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I just think the ARLC needs to plough on with what it thinks is right and do so until it is overthrown. Let’s have a government that doesn’t govern to stay in government.

I don’t want David Smith caring what I write here. I think the true rugby league fan does have a representative at League Central in the head of strategy Shane Richardson, a bloke who went from selling raffle tickets at Beaudesert to working for Russell Crowe.

That’s why I was disappointed to see the NRL put out a media release on Sunday about the form of transport Smith and John Grant use. They are the heads of a major professional sporting organisation – they can travel in limousines for all I care.

But more importantly, the NRL shouldn’t give a tinkers cuss about what people like me write about them. Get on with it, following your conscience and knowledge, until that imprimatur is taken away from you.

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