When I first started watching rugby league in the 1980s it was the hard men of the game that got me addicted to the sport as a kid.
Over the preceding years we’ve been blessed with many of them.
Men so tough that being felled by foul play almost always resulted from them being carried from the field.
If they stayed down after a high shot or a shoulder to the head, they were genuinely hurt and rarely were they capable of staying on the field.
If they fell victim to foul play and were not hurt badly the result was usually the fastest return to an upright position they could muster.
The reason was to exact an immediate serving of justice in the form of punches. For no other reason but to teach the opposing hard man that such actions would not be tolerated.
But the NRL’s crack down on fighting induced the four-player send off farce in Origin last year. That was compounded by referee’s inviting the dive by giving the video adjudicators time to review a tackle if a player stays down when a penalty isn’t awarded swiftly. The two complement each other perfectly in bringing down the integrity of the tough man versus the tough man part of the game.
There is no doubt in my mind that Michael Innes and Sam Perret would have returned to their feet immediately had penalties been awarded swiftly by referees. No player would risk being removed by the new concussion rule if a penalty has already been given.
I have no problem with the video refs reporting to the men in the middle if they’ve missed foul play. Getting the decisions right is the most important part of the adjudication of our game.
So that leaves us with how the players make sure the refs get an opportunity to correct a decision they may have missed.
Enter, or shall I say, re-enter the biff.
Let’s face it, the wonderful game of rugby league is about legalised assault. Of course only when within the rules. Try running full pace down Queen Street mall and pulling off a Nigel Plum bell ringer on an unsuspecting bystander – then claiming in court that you were just playing a bit of Saturday afternoon league.
So broken down, any foul play that involves a swinging arm or high shot on an attacking player is essentially assault, as it’s outside the state sanctioned waiver within the rules of the game.
This viewpoint was supported in law this week when the Gympie District Court found Bribie Island player Mitchell McMahon not guilty of assault occasioning bodily harm. McMahon reacted with what has to be said, were two beautiful left crosses to the head of former St-George player Noel Goldthorpe after the prop received elbows and knees to the head as he was held on his back helpless. The jury took less than 30 minutes to hand down a not guilty verdict.
So if a jury of our peers can plainly see that a reasonable man’s reaction to assault is to return fire with assault. Why can’t the NRL?
Maybe if we took a step back and relaxed the clamp down on the biff, then we’d not only stop alienating the supporter base of rugby league fans that love to see it, but stop rugby league sliding down the slippery slope that international football has found itself at the very bottom of.
Once there, there will be no return. So let’s stop the rot now.
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