Traditionally, football has always been the sport associated with diving and simulation, but it seems NRL players are now getting in on the act.
The Luke Brooks incident last weekend has brought up that ugly word again – cheating.
Players are staying down more and more often to ‘milk’ penalties. In fact, what started out as something that occurred a couple of times a season now happens in almost every NRL game.
Who remembers the Issac Luke incident from 2011?
The ‘love tap’, as it was branded by an outraged Johnathan Thurston, caused a lot of debate at the time. There have also been examples from Josh Reynolds and even the great Darren Lockyer in previous years.
But at least those were basically isolated incidents – the same cannot be said about diving in today’s game.
Of course, there’s no arguing that football has the worse record when it comes to simulation.
Yet, there is a major difference between diving in football and diving in the NRL. One is a contact sport, the other one isn’t.
NRL players are trained every day to take heavy hits to their bodies. When they enter the playing field on a weekend, they are expecting to be battered and bruised.
In football, there’s no such preparation. As a non-contact sport, it is illegal to kick out at another player’s legs. Clubs don’t set up training drills where their employees are continually submitted to physical contact.
When a footballer goes down from a kick to the shins, it legitimately hurts because they’re not used to it.
The same can be said for NBA players – where ‘flopping’ has been around for a while now. It’s on par, if not worse, than football simulation.
These challenges wouldn’t hurt a rugby player, but that’s got nothing to do with manliness or toughness. They’re simply geared towards expecting and dealing with such contact, whereas footballers and basketballers aren’t accustomed to receiving such blows.
Admittedly, it is the illegality of contact that does unfortunately lead to footballers going down too easily. But it’s part of the game. Italian legend Alessandro Del Piero was lambasted by sections of the sporting community this season for supposedly playing up fouls, but they were legitimate.
Footballers have even been shown to admit when they’ve messed up, such as Werder Bremen’s Aaron Hunt. But, again unfortunately, it’s a rarity.
Yet while simulation is just an accepted facet of football and basketball, the same cannot be said for the NRL. This is not what rugby league fans want to see and it’s something they don’t need.
They love branding football as a cheater’s game, and now they risk looking hypocritical.
The NRL is supposed to be a ‘man’s game’. While in both sports the players are trying to gain an advantage for their team, what is deemed smart in football, is soft in rugby league. It’s embarrassing for proud league fans and the NRL has to do something about it.
But with video referees seemingly getting decisions wrong left, right and centre this season, what is the answer?
At least football has a system whereby the referee can punish blatant simulation or cheating with a yellow card. At the moment, NRL referees seem powerless, or at least clueless, in their ability to stamp out the blight.
It’s also a bit hard for them to hand out punishments when, most of the time, the player has a legitimate reason to go down.
A high tackle is illegal. If the referee doesn’t see it, then the tackled player is tempted to take it upon himself and make the foul obvious. Under current rules, he’s not really doing anything untoward.
However, in terms of the recent obstruction incidents involving Cronulla forward Wade Graham and Tigers halfback Luke Brooks? Well, surely the referees, both on the field and upstairs, should have the common sense to see through those.
Simulation is sadly expected and, to a degree, accepted in non-contact sports such as basketball and football. But for rugby league it’s something alien and unnatural. But who’s at fault? Is it the players and their coaches? Or is it the referees’ responsibility?
Winning is paramount in rugby league, it is a results-based business. Can you judge a man for wanting to win at all costs?
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