A plea to keep shoulder charges

talking to my grandfayher the other day about the shoulder charge him and his mates and i agree wat they were saying that whoever does it r cowards they used it in there day so did i but we used our arm or both which is more effected if any one in the nrl wats to learn how to tackle properly i will teach them how to shoulder tackle no seriously no one knows how to tackle these days players like ingliss and co just were not taught properly when they were young must of been stupid coaches wat do u think only reply if u know how to tackle properly

Player welfare in Rugby Union? How many kids are paralysed in your barbaric scrums and rucks? Rugby is a more dangerous sport than League, the severity and consistency of injuries in Rugby is far worse than anything in League. If League had anything like the sort of injuries you see in Rugby scrums then the shoulder charge would have been banned 10 years ago. League has led the way on professionalism and player welfare and always will. The only difference between the two codes is that Rugby Union is free of media scrutiny and is more akin to a cult, in which members of the Rugby fraternity do not see problems within their own game, and so most Rugby fans are too intellectually challenged to actually grasp that their sport has its problems. But that's Rugby hypocrites for you. You won't see the scrum or ruck banned any time soon, despite the thousands of Rugby players already with no movement below the neck thanks to the sport. Forget the tens of thousands of people with broken necks from scrums and rucks. Player welfare? Don't make me laugh. Rugby is perhaps the most dangerous team sport in the world as far as spinal injuries are concerned. Good job you have an old boys network in media and government to keep the issue brushed under the rug.

That sounds reasonable.

Exaggeration much?

Any head contact = Off + 4 weeks minimum

and all league players have brain damage and shortened lives??? nuts

Player conduct on the field Sledgie is all part and parcel of how the officials implement the rules.No mention by me of offield behaviour. Travis Burns will hardly be getting a get out of jail free card.Inglis certainly didn't. Compare the marketing work selling the game at the start of the year on TV by the code's maketing arm,to ch9s promo of SOO and its Tv games.A world of a difference. I am not a great fan of shoulder charges,but applied as they should be I can see they have appeal.IMO they are not always effective in stopping a player. Well I can assure you,the code must be doing something right in ensuring players are protected ,as rugby league has been accepted as a Cat 3 sport 1st stage to acceptance) in the Commonwealth Games.Why? Because of its grassroots development work in CWealth countries and thoe planned for the future.The game has record grassroots participation in this country.And the code is also gaining acceptance in new countries,esle it would not receive official Govt sportin status in places like Serbia,Ukraine and Lebanon. Lift a player above the horizontal and you are penalised.The code is a hell of a lot stricter on how the game is played,than ever it was and I have been watching for decades.There is too much compeittion from other codes to just let things lie.A player gets taken out he is penalised.Ther is little room to hide for misdemeanours.And there are video checks later on games where players can be cited. I don't rely on utube and blogs,I attend games to get fans reaction to offences on the field.It is a contact sport so injuries happen unintentionally ,just as they do in union. And I am indeed glad there is a difference between the sports,visually and participating.That is also a selling point overseas for rugby league.

Crosscoder, I didn't mention player conduct at all. Shoulder charges and dust ups have been included in promotional material for the NRL and SOO (if this is the work of the ARLC, then great). The fans who comment on utube videos and in blogs in general, provide an insight into the sports culture. Call it glatitorial if you will. No judement call. I'm sure the NFL also celebrates big hits and the UFC celebrates knock outs. So be it. In my mind the distinction is there as the IRB is getting stricter on so called dangerous play every year. This is not because rugby players are 'gentlemen' but is a financial perogative to allow rugby union to gain acceptance into the Olympics and new markets around the world. It is both a strength and weakness of rugby, and a real difference between the two sports.

For a start it is not the NRL that looks after the promotion of the game,but the ARLC.. : The game is promoted as a tough sport,and one suggests it hardly glorifies fights as Matai and Stewart found out.And jennings found out in SOO1. "Without passing judgement",well you just did.Always love it when a union fan,promotes the perceived exemplary conduct onfield of their code's players.The ivory tower still exists in this world. . It is not the head body,but the likes of ch9 and some old dinosaurs that promote fights.The official code's promotion shows tries being scored,tackles made andf the star players The RLPA and the head body,have introduced rule changes and penalties, that have been extremely concerned about player welfare eg tackling a player in mid air,tackling a kicker after he has kicked the ball, 3rd ,man in a fight,tackling a man around the legs whilst the player has been called held,the head is sacrosanct. Have not heard of an eye gouge in recent times ,which has happend in union.Little things happen in rucks at times. . There is no confusion between the two rugbys as FTA TV will attest.One is open ,one is technical.If there was any confusion in this country,the Tv ratings would perhaps be identical and I might have remained a union follower.

As a rugby union supporter I really hope that the NRL keeps shoulder charges, continues to promote the game as the 'toughest most violent sport on the planet' and glorifies the onfield fights, and tribalistic hatred as seen in the SOO. Without passing judgement on this culture, it is getting further and futher apart from rugby in which player wellfare is one of the key principles. Hopefully in the long term the two sports will become so distinct people in new markets be able to choose which approach suits them, and so the current confusion between the two 'rugbyies' will become less and less.

I am new arrival in Australia. I really like aggressive NRL. Shoulder charge is spectacular among the young bulls. I watch AFL occasionally. If man AFL player gets bumped off feet, he cries and his mummy is called straight away! And player who plays rough is banned for weeks - unbelievable!!

Keep shoulder charge legal but emphasis that the onus is on the defender to stay away from the head in execution - so that even if it is accidental (ie the ball carrier falls) it is still an offense to contact the head during a shoulder charge with a suspension to follow.

Maybe ramp it up to 10-20 weeks for Inglis shot, that would make him think twice saw with some of Frank Pritchard's hit. You gotta get tough 3 weeks is just a nice rest to freshen up where as 10-20 weeks will really hurt you as you may even have your contract torn up. Get tough, people do notice and do react. Many Asian nations have the death penalty for drug possession of certain illegal drugs yes drugs possession, Malaysia is one . Singapore and Thailand are very tough on drug trafficking. And Australian was executed in singapore for heroin trafficking in 2005. So you get tough people think twice about breaking the law in tough nations like singapore. That is why I think things this is my personal opinion but things like speeding tickets or parking tickets should get 5 years jail or drink driving 10 years. Why it gets people to behave, a casual fine or or good behaviour bond doesn't phase most people. But if you go out to the footy or have an extra drink at a party, you will think twice about having that extra drink if you know you are facing 10 years jail for drink driving. Where as with footy suspensions too, 3 weeks for a hit to the head that in regular society would be deemed assault to cause grevious bodily harm. Can you imagine the public uproar if some one hit someone like that in Kings cross the way GI hit dean young. There would be an outrage, instead 3 weeks off to freshen up for the final series. So soft. Australia could learn a lot from countries like SIngapore, and Malaysia and thailand and Indonesia about getting tough and not tolerating nonsense.

As most know who are regulars on the roar my feelings about the shoulder charge ,,but if we are to keep it,,, the penalty for going to the head must be big and keep it consistent ,,so as to keep the guys thinking about putting it on right or just not trying it at all ..

And I played Rugby all those years thinking it was about getting hold of the ball rather than trying to nail my opponent...

But it would look pretty hilarious, like when Joel Thompson got mummified last year.

Head gear is only going to work if it covers the jawline and the cheekbones, this cuts down your field of vision.

1. There is nothing wrong with the shoulder charge, but if you attack someone's head you should be penalise and receive a suspension just like Inglis did. 3 weeks for his hit on Young seems fair to me. Inglis should have effected a normal tackle, it would have been massive and bumped the ball loose. 2. If we are serious about head trauma we should make headgear compulsory. I mean every 3rd week we see a shocking head clash. Some idiots might think it would make our players soft...riiight...so how about your raise your kids and give them zero immunisation so they dont get raised as soft.

-I think for mine grass technology or astro turf technology have to be seriously looked at in improving if possible. -Coz you think about some those incidents in the news where street fights have happened and the victim has died not from the hit but from hitting the hard concrete ground on there head. That is why Ice Hockey concussions are so dangerous, on hard ice, and on that fibre glass boards. -The late DR Victor Chang the doctor who died in the 1990's in Australia was shot in the head. But he did not in fact die from the gun shot wounds to the head. The remarkable thing was the human body is so complex that certain parts of the head the skull are stronger than others he actually would of lived it did not hit specific parts of his skull that cause death. What Dr Victor Chang died from was hitting his head on the hard concrete not the bullets remarkably so. So if he was shot on soft grass he would be here today almost certainly unless his attackers shot him again knowing he was still conscious. So head trauma is often about specific parts where the blow lands and secondary impacts straight after a hit eg like concrete or hard ice floor in ice hockey, or hard wood floor in basketball. -So ban cricket pitches on footy fields eg like at the gabba, and if the shoulder charge is too stay have the grass or astro turf extra soft or lush. Or bring in gridiron helmets.