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Melbourne Storm skipper Cameron Smith faced the farcical charge of dangerous contact after lashing out with his boots and finding the face of Rabbitoh hooker Issac Luke.
But he’ll be eligible to play in next week’s Origin opener after making an early guilty plea.
More State of Origin:
» State of Origin News
» State of Origin team news
» The Roar’s NSW Blues team for Origin 1
» The Roar’s Queensland Maroons team for Origin 1
Guilty of what?
For years gang tackling defenders have pinned the ball carrier, stopping him from playing the ball quickly.
Almost without exception, every ball-carrier lashes out with his feet, trying to wriggle free.
If there are any offenders, it’s the combination of the gang tacklers, and the referees for not pinging them on a regular basis.
The practice is now endemic.
The Cameron Smith farce made me dig into the memory bank of what the great game of rugby league was like over decades past.
Like the biff, the “softening up process” of the first 20-25 minutes when the Marquis of Queensbury rule book was never mentioned.
Household names emerged like “Bumper” Farrell, Fred de Belin, and Jack Rayner in the 40s, Noel Kelly, Peter Dimond, and Rex Mossop in the 50s, Kevin Ryan and John Sattler in the 60s, John O’Neill, Terry Randall, Les Boyd, and Tommy Raudonikis in the 70s, and Greg Dowling, David Gillespie, Steve Fokes, and Steve Roach in the 80s, just to name a few.
None of them ever felt any pain, but they sure inflicted plenty.
Under the current sanitised rules, they wouldn’t be remembered as top shelf enforcers.
Then there’s the magnificent St George era where the Dragons won a record 11 successive premierships from 1956 to 1966 under the unlimited tackle rule.
Those sides with the big red V were so brilliant they owned the ball for virtually 80 minutes, so opponents did a lot of chasing and tackling, but rarely ran in possession.
So how could St George be stopped?
Bring in the four-tackle rule for 1967, and that stopped the Dragon dominance instantly.
But four tackles were ridiculously low, the game was too disjointed, making way for the six-tackle rule in 1972.
Scrums, now there’s a major change.
In the days of yon, would you believe halfbacks fed the scrum in the tunnel, and hookers actually hooked for the ball. How about that, a genuine contest?
The least said about the current “scrums” the better, they are an embarrassment.
And in those eras, the marker could legally strike for possession at the play-the-ball – Mario Fenech was a genius at regaining possession against the odds.
So there are many ways the game has changed, like lowering the drop goal from two points to one in 1972, and lifting a try from three points to four in 1983.
But there are still areas where the great game of rugby league can be greater, and one of them is the gang tacklers pinning the ball carrier for far too long.
And when officialdom fix that, Cameron Smith won’t ever have to face a farcical charge ever again.