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Todd Greenberg, you are freaking kidding, right!?
You’ve handed out $350,000 in fines for clubs not taking concussion protocols seriously with the words, “our message is clear… we are not going to allow player safety to be put at risk through breaches of the concussion rules.”
That’s great Todd. But one big problem: I think your organisation hasn’t done enough to make the clubs prioritising the protection of their possibly concussed players anything but a punishment.
While the clubs are expected to adhere strictly to the rules, there have been zero mitigation measures put in place by NRL HQ, apart from handing out unprecedented fines of course.
The beatings will continue until morale improves…
Apart from the free interchange for taking a possibly concussed player from the field, the concussion protocol directly punishes the clubs that follow it.
When a club loses a player from the rotation, it seriously hurts their chances of winning.
People argue that ten minutes in the bin is too harsh a punishment for repeated infringers, and the referees obviously agree as less than one per cent of the penalties they award result in the bin being used.
Yet NRL HQ will give out massive fines for clubs for not instantaneously removing a player to check for concussion.
It is an illogical standpoint. Hypocritical even.
If Greenberg is serious about protecting the welfare of players as a priority, he’s got to put measures in place that mean that clubs who take possibly concussed players – who want to play on – off the field aren’t put at a major disadvantage for doing so.
There are two straightforward things Greenberg can do immediately.
He must allow the use of the 18th man to replace players lost to concussion, and he must support and embolden his referees to send players off when they have caused those concussions through reckless or intentional acts.
Allowing the 18th man to replace a player who cannot return to the field due to concussion is a no-brainer.
The Brendan Elliot concussion is a clear example of why.
Having watched the incident a number of times I’m in no doubt Elliot was clearly concussed and had to be taken off the field. And because of that, a fine is valid.
But do you actually think that the Knights would have even thought of keeping him on the field if they’d been able to bring on a replacement? I think not.
And that is the whole point of the protocols: for clubs to take concussion seriously because it is the right thing for the player and their long-term welfare. The NRL has a responsibility for that attitude being realised. Along with the stick of fines, the easing of the pain via an emergency replacement will definitely help achieve this.
When questioned about the Elliot incident, Nathan Brown raised a very good point.
“… if Brendan Elliott does have to leave the field because of that, and then the player does get suspended, who gets the benefit out of it?”
The Knights lost Elliot, the game and $150,000.
Hymel Hunt received a grade two reckless tackle charge for the swinging arm that effectively took Elliot out in the 28th minute of the Knights-Rabbitohs game. Hunt will miss four games with an early guilty plea, not risking a possible six games by fighting it.
However, the Bunnies took the two points against the Knights. Tonight against the Roosters, the Rabbitohs will field 17 players, and cop no fine.
In ex-top referee Bill Harrigan’s opinion, four weeks for Hunt was too little, “They’re lucky they gave that as reckless because I saw it as intentional.”
Here is my question: if Hunt’s swinging arm was judged to be worthy of a six-week ban and George Burgess’ elbow to Mitch Barnett’s head worthy of a three-week ban, why on earth were neither sent off?
Greenberg and Archer must empower and embolden their referees to send players off. This will drastically help to get clubs to prioritise the concussion protocol.
The last person sent off in the NRL was David Shillington for headbutting Aaron Woods in Round 22 of season 2015 – ironically on advice from the video referee. Before that, it was Kane Snowden in 2013 for a shoulder charge that broke Cowboy Ray Thompson’s jaw. That’s just two send offs in four full seasons.
Since the introduction of the on-field report system in the mid-2000s, we’ve seen many players stay on the field who have subsequently received big suspensions that confirmed that their crime was blatant enough to warrant being dismissed immediately. Think Greg Inglis on Dean Young in July 2012.
Inglis’ feet left the ground and he hit Young in the head with his forearm. Young left the ground on the medicab in a neck brace. Inglis, conversely, left the ground at full time with his victorious Rabbitohs.
However, as we know, the referees are terrified to use even the sin bin lest they be hung out to dry like Bill Harrigan was in 2002 by Graham Annesley, when pressure brought to bear by the Eels and members of the media outweighed the NRL’s imperative to back up their official.
Given this environment, sending a player off requires foolhardy courage. So the refs put the player on report instead.
As a result, players (and their teams) who cause damage to their opponents through reckless or intentional actions aren’t being punished during that match. Rather, the team whose player gets taken out are. And then the NRL throws in a massive fine for good measure.
Let’s not forget that Hymel Hunt’s forearm to the head of Brendan Elliot caused the concussion that has triggered all the fuss.
We could see Hunt’s hit clearly on the video replay, from eight high definition angles in super slo-mo. And there were two full minutes to review that footage as Elliot lay prone on the turf.
However, neither referee David Munro or Chris Sutton requested video ref Jared Maxwell review it for a possible send off. Nor did Jared Maxwell – who is able to intervene in the case of foul play – use his power to recommend a send-off.
Their non-action in this incident suggests they are too scared to enforce the rules. The judiciary has just handed down a penalty consistent with a heinous crime and they used the very same footage that was at the referees’ disposal to do it.
Further, while Maxwell did point out that George Burgess threw an elbow at Mitch Barnett’s head – an instant send off if substantiated – Munro only put Burgess on report and in the bin for it.
Read that again.
They had a minimum of eight high definition angles to check if he connected or not. Eight! But they still didn’t take action.
To rub salt into the Knight’s gaping wounds, in the 70th minute of the game Munro sin-binned their captain for saying “You’ve just cost us the game.”
Trent Hodkinson was right, Munro did cost them the game. But it wasn’t as a result of the call for an iffy scrum in the 70th.
It was because he didn’t send either Burgess or Hunt off when he had the clear knowledge that incidents had occurred, the ability and duty to have them reviewed, and the obligation to send both players off when their crimes were clearly established during this process – which both would have been.
If Munro sends them off you can bet your backside that two things occur:
1. The Knights rightly win the game
2. Brendan Elliot comes straight off the field
It now seems as though we have a group of referees who are too hesitant to uphold the laws of the game that protect players from the very acts that cause concussion. And by not sending players off in such circumstances they actually reward the culprits.
If players who perpetrate reckless or intentional acts start getting sent off, there is a very good chance that players will have to modify their techniques and the instances will reduce markedly.
I believe NRL HQ has not unequivocally backed its whistle blowers absolute authority over games for a long time now. The referees are subsequently worried for their ongoing positions. They don’t sin bin or send off. They put it on report instead.
The referees are going to get stuff wrong. We know that. However, the NRL must back their referees so that they can be indisputably and fearlessly in charge of every match.
Then – and only then – can NRL HQ righteously and sanctimoniously hand out fines for clubs not following the concussion protocols.
Get with the freaking program Todd.