If the improvements that needed to be made weren’t obvious enough to those in charge, they would hardly listen to me if I pointed them out.
But we are getting very close to the business end of proceedings and I feel it would be remiss of me not to air a serious concern I have with a particular ruling which is growing in prominence.
Twice last week, first on Friday and then on Monday a team landed a penalty goal after an innocuous challenge on a kicker was deemed worthy of a plenty. It may have happened more by the two examples stuck in my mind.
On both occasions the team that received the penalties just slotted an easy two points.
The Eels penalty pretty much killed off the Bulldogs comeback (I’m not saying it decided the match) and it left me very concerned that such a decision could have a major role in decided who gets in the top eight or the result of a finals match.
Now the rule is that you have to be in the motion of tackling a kicker you can’t just shoulder charge him. That may be fair enough but the two players where hardly hammering a bloke late with a shoulder.
The Bulldogs Ben Hannant appeared to at worst “chest” his opponent and the Bronco’s Corey Parker used his hands and pushed Braith Anasta. (Those watching the footage may have picked up a theatrical squeal from Anasta, but we’ll leave that debate for another day).
Of course it’s ridiculous to say you have to be in the action of tackling in the kicker because if you flew in and tried to before a trademark tackle around the boot laces that would probably be the most dangerous on any of the scenarios.
In my opinion we’ve let the pendulum swing too far in favour of the attacking team, we can’t expect teams to just let blokes ping the ball down field with no pressure. Especially seeing the policing of the rule, like the monitoring of the forward pass from dummy half, seems to have exploded in the last few weeks.
The idea was to stop late and dangerous hits, not any form of contact. We got the balance right when you can tackle a bloke in the air on kicks, so let’s focus on the earlier stage in the production process.
These are soft, soft penalties and it would be a travesty if such a call determined a major result or heaven forbid the destination of the Premiership.
It’s clear the referees receive guidance on which rules need to be fixed during the season so let’s get this one sorted before the action heats up.
Dean - Surry Hills
Guest
I agree 100% with your comments Steve. I can not fathom how a kicker in league is allowed so much protection - yet they are still able to feign and not kick at all, and then run the ball to create space. The other crazy scenario is that of the man catching a high ball from a kick. This poor soul is provided absolutely no protection - and the moment he catches the ball, he is most often hammered in a tackle by someone running at speed. This catcher of the ball quite often has no time to evade a tackle, step out of the way, or pass to a team mate. It's not that hard to put up a high ball inside the oppositions 30 metre area and then have two or three players smashing the man who courageously takes the high ball, and then to drive him back across his try line to force a goal line drop-out. What reward is there for catching the bomb in the first place ?
Hutchoman
Roar Pro
"In my opinion we’ve let the pendulum swing too far in favour of the attacking team". Steve, Your comments above are an opinion I've held about rugby league for some time (and cricket for that matter). Sure we all love to see fantastic flowing tries scored, features acts of the most brilliant athletism, just as cricket fans love a majestic cover drive or towering hook shot into the crowd. But why should scoring more points/runs necessarily create a better game? While we don't want 0-0 draws, I don't really want to see games where both teams are scoring 30 or 40 points. The result of these matches almost feels arbitrary as if the match were played for 5 minutes more or 5 minutes less you get the feeling the result would be reversed. Where rule interpretations cause that sort of scoreline to be manufactured consistently I feel short changed as only part of the game's skills are on display. Administrators and officials need to ensure the match is adjudicated in a way that fairly allows both teams to display all the skills of the game, not in a way that biases some skills over others.
ptovey01
Roar Pro
True. It is a load of Bull$hit at the present moment. Kickers are playing up to it. there needs to be a rule about taking out the kicker, but they are not taking into account that these players are committed.