We code warriors delight and revel in the negative headlines that beset The Enemy Code from time to time. Lately the AFL has had to endure some bad press around the issue of tanking.
It was their bad luck that at the same time as the ashes of their own alleged tanking problems were being raked over in the media, several tanking scandals were concurrently erupting at various Olympic Games events.
This was one example where coverage of a major event like the Olympics did not serve to bury sensitive and unwanted sporting headlines.
The time is fast approaching when the Central Committee of the Glorious Peoples’ Republic of rugby league is going to have to deal with a far more regular and embarrassing development that sucks the life out of most supporters and out of the contest itself.
No, it’s not the baffling survival of the shambolic and utterly pointless scrum.
If you watch NRL games it can’t have escaped your notice that a new phenomenon has crept into the game over the last few seasons: the dive.
Staying down long enough for everyone to stand around doing absolutely nothing and allowing the video ref to wearily review the shot and recommend a penalty is a new unwritten rule.
Rugby league is a code that prides itself on its toughness, fast-paced action and the ferocity of its combat. Its players need to explode onto the ball and cannon into each other with bone-rattling confrontations.
They need to avoid giving any kind of psychological advantage to their opponents.
Historically, showing pain to the bloke who’s just cracked three of your ribs was tantamount to admitting you’d much rather be embroidering your initials onto a lace hanky, provided the needle wasn’t too sharp.
In days past, players would use minor annoyances as a broken arm, a dislocated jaw or an exploding aorta as motivation to get square and get the win.
Now, any kind of light brushing slap above the shoulders is responded to with a drastic collapse, an agonising thrashing and twitching on the ground and valiant but ultimately futile attempt to rise.
You even see the trainers pushing the players back down.
Following the inevitable awarding of the penalty, the player who was comatose seconds beforehand is often seen taking the very next hit-up.
Pathetic!
Is it gamesmanship? I suppose it’s the epitome of it – certainly soccer apologists would see it that way.
In the era of ruthless professionalism every advantage must be wrung from the contest like so much fake blood from a fake stone.
The problem is that it’s just so counter to the supposed tough-guy ethos and image of rugby league.
The sport that’s meant to be an honest contest of man on man, bone on bone, wear them down, iron them out, take no prisoners – oh and score some points, too.
It’s also a poor development for the code that wants to push ahead and expand its appeal and its reach.
Firstly, every time the game is pulled up for one of these non-penalties, I’m immediately reminded of what rugby union is becoming – a game where nothing happens unless, and until, the referee intervenes.
Secondly, Johnny Suburbia’s mum isn’t going to like seeing all these blokes writhing on the ground in agony every thirty seconds, seemingly at death’s door.
Thirdly, remember the shock and fury of the Socceroos exit from the 2006 FIFA World Cup?
Australia was arguably the better side against Italy but the single winning goal was taken by the Italians after Fabio Grosso dived like a hungry duck and conned the ref into awarding the penalty.
Fans of all codes came together in this one moment of Australian sporting horror and cursed the Italian soccer team with everything we had.
As we turned back to our domestic sporting interests we muttered darkly ‘at least that doesn’t happen in MY code!’
Do we really want an NRL grand final decided by such an action? It will happen.
So please, for the sake of an honest contest can we find a way to curb this insidious, creeping, ugly trend in the Greatest Game and get back to the good old days of never showing your opposition the slightest grimace?
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