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A few months before the start of the 2013 NRL season, I was working on a highlights compilation that I had hoped would become a good piece of NRL promotion online.
It contained what I felt to be the best moments from the 2012 season and would inspire people to watch the NRL this year in great numbers and feed the fires of anticipation.
Just when I was putting the finishing touches on my promotional video however, I was informed by a friend that most of what I had included would be now considered illegal play!
This was the moment I was told the shoulder charge had been rubbed out of the game. I have to be honest, I was shattered.
To me, the physical nature of rugby league is what separates our game from all of its rivals. We know it can be brutal at times, gladiatorial almost, and that’s why we fill the stands at games nervously eating our meat pies and clammer into mate’s living rooms with a slab of beer, our eyes glued to the screen.
There is truly no other game like it. The unique blend of skill, athleticism and bravery required cannot be replicated in any other sport. It has to be said, the ability for players to put on a big hit is a huge part of that.
It’s an opportunity for any player to try and take a game by the scruff of the neck and send out a message. It’s when a player, who is man enough, can stamp their authority and intimidate. It can be a turning point. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Either way, as a spectator you are in awe of the warriors hammering it out in the middle and trying whatever they can do to secure victory for their respective clubs.
I miss it already. Where is my ‘big hits’ segment on the Footy Show? Oh we don’t do that anymore, namely because there aren’t any. We have a couple we can show you, but the NRL judiciary currently has those videos in use for a few hearings.
Sometimes it feels like the rule-makers are deliberately picking at the fabric of what makes rugby league great.
Now don’t get me wrong, I understand wholeheartedly the players must have their health and safety protected where possible. I am not here advocating, for example, it is okay to shoulder charge a player in the head. It isn’t. Just as it isn’t permissible to make a conventional tackle across the bridge of the nose either, it’s a high tackle.
Why did we have to apply a blow torch to the whole art form of shoulder charges? Could we not have instead simply stated that a shoulder charge to the head will see players suspended for long periods of time?
Barring a few exceptions, all of the shoulder charges I witnessed last year were NOT to the head, they were genuine bone rattlers to the body.
I also have had people say to me that it is about protecting the safety and wellbeing of the players making the shoulder charge as well! Really? Are we going to start limiting the speed of how fast players can run as well?
Should referees start handing our speeding tickets to Uate and Jennings? When Anthony Minichello throws his body on a rolling ball only to be smashed by three attackers, should we book him for carelessness?
No, it’s a tough man’s game! If a player wants to make his own decision to throw caution to the wind and put his body on the line, so be it. This is rugby league people!
This rule needs to be changed for the good of our game. The only way it can happen as I see it, is if the fans let it be known that changing fundamental rules that make our game great is not acceptable.
If witnessing big tackles, massive hits and high speed collisions isn’t your thing, then I suggest you watch the World Badminton Series in South Korea.
It’s nowhere near as fun to watch but I don’t think the players have been injured in years.
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