Alex McKinnon's injury is a wake-up call

It was only a matter of time before a rugby league player suffered an injury like this. We have been watching replays and replays of players being driven head first into the ground...and only by pure luck have they not been hospitalised or crippled by these illegal tackles. When it eventually does result in a player suffering devastating injuries..we start to argue whether it was the fault of the player who made the illegal movement in the tackle..or whether it was just an unfortunate accident in a game where there is always the risk of injury. In this case there was a player with the ball who was already well on the way to being tackled by two tacklers, when a third tackler came in and lifted him above the horizontal and drove the player forward causing all three tacklers to come down onto the players head while the player was in an upside down position. The third tackler was found to be guilty of an illegal tackle. Some people are saying you cannot give the illegal tackler 7 weeks suspension because he didn't mean to harm the tackled player. ....and you can't suspend him for longer because the victim of the illegal tackle suffered severe injuries. My analogy is.... If you drive and are caught speeding you will be fined and lose some points off your licence...... If you drive and speed and have an ACCIDENT causing injuries you will be fined....lose your licence.. and face criminal charges, possibly resulting in a jail sentence . If you drink and drive you will face loss of licence....if you drink and drive and INJURE someone. you will be facing a jail sentence. The analogy?? ...The RESULT of your actions WILL result in a bigger PENALTY.

When players lift they do it to get the ball carrier on the ground to slow the play the ball down if they lifted to hurt players they'd do it every tackle. There's been millions of tackles in the history of rugby league and how many have suffered a serious injury like Alex McKinnon? So why change a rule now? And players get concussed/knocked out every week and usually play on that game or the next week. Maybe coaches/doctors should get banned because by letting them play they could be causing damage to a players health maybe not now but later on in life

"McKinnon (of course, not intentionally to hurt himself) tucked his head" what was he supposed to do with his head ?

I just heard jonny Gibbs on radio say it was ridiculous that the prosecution at the judiciary is asking for 11 weeks for Mclean !! Dinosaur thinking from jonny,how about they let Mclean play again when Alex can play again .

Have another look at the tackle they lifted and drove him into the ground .Thqta why he has a broken neck . Ban lifting and the three man tackle befor the next one happens ,it could be worse .

Glenn, I get your point.I don't deny that this is very serious for Alex. My experience with my work tells me that. In the years I have watched the game I have seen many examples of similar lifting tackles, where but for the grace of god, nothing went wrong. Those players were very, very lucky to not be in a similar position as Alex. A lot of those tackles were worse in terms of the players pretty much ending upside down and barely managing to not land directly on their head. And more minor of these tackles are rarely if ever penalised. To me, while there was lifting in the tackle, it wasn't to the extent I have seen as mentioned. Yes it is illegal and yes it contributed but was it done deliberately, with intent to injure Alex - no. It was the result of a rush of blood, which we often see in the game. It is rarely thought out or planned, it is a reaction. This to me, makes it accidental. If other things in the tackle had gone differently, Alex wouldn't be in this situation. The knights who I actually support were guilty of lifting tackles in the same game which also had a driving motion but were not penalised which they should have been. These other tackles were lucky to have not resulted in injury to the storm players. It is a tragic accident due to the fact that in this tackle, other factors not present in similar tackles impacted on this particular tackle with tragic consequences for Alex. I respect the fact that you see it differently, that is your right. My own life experience tells me that decent people can end up in situations they don't plan on, which may be against the law, resulting in serious injury to another person. In these situations, while I recognise there is an illegal act, I do see them as tragic accidents, when I compare them to acts of murder which are deliberate acts. What happens in a court of law is one thing, but in the judiciary things can be very different. It will be interesting to see how the judiciary handles this particular case.

Also from a legal perspective there was clearly intent involved..there was every opportunity not to drive the players head into the ground but they did . Actions have consequences intended or not and when those consequences are as severe as leaving a young man paralysed from the neck down probably for the rest of his life we are talking serious shit. The idea he should be getting 4-6 weeks is just laughable it defies the concept of natural justice and is to silly for words.Les Boyd got twelve months for a flying elbow that broke Brohmans jaw - this is much more serious than that. Legal systems always take into account the damage done..punch someone and bust his lip and you might get a few hundred dollar fine punch him and he drops dead and you are in the concrete motel for a long time.

Kazzie - I can't follow your logic... if the tackle is illegal (which it was) then it is not an accident it is the result of illegal play.No the player in question was no doubt not aiming to break someones neck but he was involved in illegal play and the reason that it is illegal is that breaking someones neck is a distinct possibilty with that kind of play. The idea that this is just a random case of badluck is simply not logical...it is the direct result of an illegal tackle pure and simple,,,sometimes the truth hurts!...

John Badseesd - Remember when they first started cleaning the game up in the early eighties Jack Gibson responded to those who were critical in his usual dry style by stating "there are some people out there who would like the players to carry guns" Yes there are sadists out there who wish for a game of flying elbows spear tackles eye gouges etc but for every one of them there are at least two who have no desire to watch a street fight with a ball as an excuse.

There was a similar one in a NSW Cup that same weekend. Luckily it wasn't anywhere near as bad as McKinnon's

My complaint is that there were three involved in the tackle yet McLean is the one cited. Had the other two not put him in that position, nothing would have happened.

Oh no... Words cannot describe how I feel for the kid. I'll pray for him and his family. So sad. So very sad.

I dunno. Who coaches JWH? Some goose went as far as to say Glenn Stewart's soft and should quit the game. Maybe it's the other way around. I hear there's work for bouncers in South Auckland.

What normal person in charge of young men would want to do that, if true, it is really pathetic, what parent would wan't their kid subjected to that coaching or playing against that particular team.

The Melbourne wrestling/judo coach is John Donehue. There's photos on his 'Extreme Martial Arts' website of him teaching Storm players. The Rabbitoh wrestling coach is Marco 'The Giant' Villela. He describes himself as the "Grappling Skills Coach of South Sydney Rabbitohs". He coaches wrestling holds to Rabbitoh players for 3 hours every week.

And yet tampering with the jumper still happens. It isn't like every other game a guy is getting an injury like McKinnon. you look at the incident and it is pretty freak, you need a whole lot of things to happen just wrong for this to be the result.

To be fair Daivd din't come out straight away - it took him a week to write a pretty meh article.

"reward the player that makes a copy book tackle around the legs, no play the ball until he is able to be in front of the play the ball as marker." Not a bad idea.

He lifted him to bring him to ground to slow down the play the ball. One player lifted, the other two were already pushing him down. No one attempted to drive him into the ground. It was careless, but it was still an accident. I've seen tackles FAR worse result in far less (or no) injury. But I do think they should be doing more to prevent this, both for the player welfare and spectacle of the game. Like how they've banned the 3rd man coming in and tackling a player around the legs (which can break your leg) they should also ban the 3rd man coming in and lifting the player (which is currently only really looked at if the player goes past the horizontal). If you've already got 2 guys holding the player up the ref should call held anyway, but the 3rd man can still tackle if the player is breaking free by tackling around the waste/chest area. Maybe of those players weren't always trying to gang tackle to slow the play of the ball they could have an extra guy back there ready to tackle already.

steve- what kind of comment do you expect from a clown.