Dave Smith and Daniel Anderson have made the sudden and savage decision to outlaw on-field punching and another element of Rugby League as we know it has died a sordid and sorry death.
This is a foul and desperate episode in NRL history. As a concept, it might be the one that causes the four horsemen of the apocalypse to saddle up.
In any event, there is a powerful sense of depression with the direction the league is being dragged in.
Smith, because he is a dull dishrag of a man, and devoid of either conviction or character, was said to be “concerned” about the game’s “image”. He was worried that the small explosions of violence that occasionally erupt between inflamed adults were a bad look.
The irony is that Smith and Anderson have themselves committed a heinous assault on the very essence of Rugby League.
By caving to misguided public pressure, their malignant decision has consequences far more dire and depressing than the prospect of some player having to be propped up in a mechanically-operated chair and spoon-fed pureed corned beef in an old folks home while using what brain cells he has left to brood on the smouldering remains of his memories of when Origin was an opportunity for slightly less regulated and slightly more reckless football.
And contrary to the impression that the hysterical and forensic attention given to the Origin incident has created, players are not out on the field rolling around and brawling like lawless hyenas in the grip of blood-lust frenzy; but it is rugby league. And in rugby league, barbarism is never far below the surface.
This – the possibility that at any given moment the only loosely-leashed forces of any given player could flame into violent action – creates a beautiful, terrible tension.
The convulsive knee-jerk attempt to remove this tension is another example of the excessive safety-proofing that is creeping cancerously into so many elements of adult life.
Now, players and fans alike are forced to suffer under the staggering weight of Smith and Anderson’s crude and unjust ruling. Now, any player who punches an opponent will be automatically sin binned, no matter what the circumstances.
Now, much of that beautiful terrible tension will be dulled down, flattened out, and deadened. No one knows what we will be left with yet, but it seems like it will be a downhill drift on all fronts.
darth vader
Guest
Always blame manly ay... Who do you support?
Gavin Cooper
Guest
I am in agreement with "leave the game alone" opinion. Too may fingers in the pie, and the favour suffers. I am confused, who are smith and Anderson working for ? All these changers, the amount of control and influence the referees are having on "MY" game, the sanitising of what was a working mans game are combing to make the game dull and boring. Example, not naming the games, but two games played this weekend were hardly worth watching. So I didn't,.(after ten mins:) As opposed to the Manley Canterbury game, which also suffered from horrendous refereeing penalty blunders, but was a great game despite the refereeing %^&*( ups. I haven't seen the poll figures, but as far as keeping the game "physical" I'll bet the numbers will favour to stay physical. And what happens in SOO two, when a disagreement takes place and a melee erupts and both sides weigh in??? toss twenty players in the bin ? Then carry on by playing touch footy. The game of rugby league has progressed and evolved at a pace that up until the last few years has satisfied most of the followers and players. After all, there are heaps of sports for those not interested in "contact" sports. Let those that don't like how physical our game can, go elsewhere. If you don't love it, leave it.
Eleanor Kite
Roar Rookie
^ shout-out to oestrogen ^
AL
Guest
Hi Soccer fan here. The game of league is tough enough, it dosent need punch ups. Focus on the game.
Bazzio
Roar Guru
Hopefully now there will be some positive entertaining footy instead of the monotonous niggle-nonsense that has dominated the small-minded perceptions and ability of the low-grade thug playing ThugbyLeague.
Marldon
Guest
WIth a comment like that then you must be a sharks supporter.
Renegade
Guest
He wasn't trying to injure the opposition, he was doing something else :P hahaha
BULLDOGS 4EVER
Guest
How things change 1st NSW had the blue brothers in Gallen & Bird , now they have the booze brothers in Ferguson & Dugan. Well done NSW,now Ferguson in trouble again at a Cronulla bar & guess with you .You guess it right DUGAN
fishes
Guest
Gallop was criticised for being reactionary- well Dave Smith and Daniel Anderson have just put him to shame. This is so soft. Maybe David Smith wants the NRL Origin to be like the British one- only 7,000 on attendance. That's the way rugby league is going. Dead set. I've seen it all now, these are the final death throes of rugby league in this country.
oikee
Guest
Amen, hehe. Yeah, all my fault, hehe. The watershed, the Gallen effect. You knew he was going to cause mayham in this code by self acts of revenge. Stop trying to blame everyone but the main culprit. Your no better than him if you do. Look only cavemen could not see this coming. ? How did you go, see it coming. ? no.
Dogs Of War
Roar Guru
It will be next. It's a joke that the punishment for a head high, is that the team they play the next week gets the benefit of that player missing. How about you go on report, then you have to be automatically replaced.
Nick
Roar Guru
Yeah, cause no one in the NSW setups ever have acted like a complete tool in the tackling cough *John Hopoate* cough
Matt
Guest
Haha good one. I hear QLD are having a press conference today, in trouble again with the law, they're out of control (what is it this time?)
Dogs Of War
Roar Guru
Given you don't really have multiple 100kg blokes jumping on top of you in the tackle in AFL, with elbows etc landing on the player, and wrestling moves employed to immobilise you, AFL has no where near the niggle that League has. That said, I think this rule is the right one. I want to see players skills on show, not a dust up.
Cameron
Roar Guru
:D
GoGWS
Roar Guru
This is true to a certain extent but in RL there's also less opportunity to niggle. In the AFL you can literally stand shoulder to shoulder with your opponent for 100 minutes giving you plenty of chances to constantly niggle. In RL niggling can go on but given the greater seperation of players it ought never rise to anywhere near the Ballantyne or Milne levels of annoyance. In RL you should be able to suck it up I would have thought.
JessJessJessBo
Guest
Been following your musings on NRL for years now and I for one love your theatrical, sardonic tone. It seems outrageously clear to me that this opinion of yours (people know that its an opinion piece, right?) is heavily influenced by an intense and profound love of colliding NRL-man-meat. In light of that, I think Barry's a man after your own heart: "to appease the biff lovers, change Golden Point to Golden MMA." Sure makes for much more entertaining reading when a sports opinion columnist/commentator has their tongue firmly planted in their cheek rather than their head deeply wedged up their own....
Brendon
Guest
Hence the birth of serial pests in the AFL....Do you think Ballantyne would be the knob he is now, 20 years ago in the same forward line as someone like Glenn Jakovich? I'm sick of seeing people be rewarded for being a cheeky, niggling little grubs these days.
Brendon
Guest
+1 Love it when people claim to love something and then do their very best to change it. Joke!
Cugel
Roar Rookie
It's all the long drawn out crying and handwringing following a minor punch up that's more of a problem, there was a time when a dust up ran its course, the players retired to their respective corners, and it was forgotten by the next set of six.