Two moments caught my eye in Thursday night’s match between the Dragons and the Panthers. Midway through the second half both sides should have been reduced to 12 men after blatant professional fouls.
The first came when Gareth Widdop made a break off a wonderful Jack De Belin offload. He was tackled 10 metres out and Sika Manu came in and effectively killed the play by lying all over him until the sweet sound of the referee’s whistle came to his ears.
He was not sin-binned and the Dragons took two points.
Not five minutes later the Panthers made a break and Tyrone Peachey ended up tackled a couple of metres short of the Dragons line. In an arguably more blatant professional foul Euan Aitken sat holding Peachey and awaiting the whistle so his side could reset their line.
Again no talk of the sin-bin, the referees didn’t even caution the players or warn the captains.
This year there have only seen 10 players sin-binned and one player sent off. Compare this with the Super League which has seen the yellow card used 44 times, with six players sent off.
A lot of NRL pundits and ex-players have suggested the five-minute sin-bin as a way of lessening the impact of the penalty. This is unnecessary. What the NRL needs to do is take a leaf out of Super League, and even rugby union, and bin all professional fouls.
Now you might say this brings another grey area into NRL adjudication, but does it?
If a player throws a punch, he sits down. If a player questions the referee’s integrity or otherwise shows dissent, he sits down. If there are repeated infringements, especially on the goal-line (e.g. Roosters), then a blanket caution is given and after the next penalty the offender sits down.
If a player illegally prevents a scoring opportunity by the opponent, whether they pull a player back, trip or interfere in the play-the-ball after a line-break, they must be punished accordingly.
When looking at using the sin-bin, we have to look at the positives it would bring.
Firstly, the offending teams’ defensive line will open up, and we will either see more tries or desperate defence as the side with 12 try to rally.
Secondly, it will punish negative play, if the sin-bin is practiced more then all of a sudden sides will cease to play negative football and this is for the greater good.
Thirdly, it will remove a lot of controversy and complaints from all sorts of personalities around the game. If players are consistently sin-binned for negative play then no one can complain.
In time NRL coaches will accept the use of the sin-bin for repeated infringements and professional fouls.
So forget about the five-minute sin-bin or other variants, we have a perfect but underused system in our game already. Ten minutes is a big deterrent to hold a player off the ball, trip and slow the play down, let’s make it that way.
Up the Wahs
Roar Guru
The funny thing is that this is an nrl issue only. The super league handed out yellow cards 44 times this season and sent off 6. This is with 12 teams not 16. There is no rule change I am talking about, it's about enforcing the rules more often and getting rid of the stigma that sin bins are unfair.
Jamieson Murphy
Roar Guru
There's been a lot of talk lately that people don't like the 10 minute sin bin because it's too hard for teams to defend with 12 players. But that's the whole point of the sin bin! Bin a player for a foul play and he'll get a tongue lashing from his players and coach, making him less likely to do it again. Forget the five minute sin bin. I want to see players binned left, right and centre
Eden
Guest
Agree 100%. Failing to sin bin means that the benefit actually goes to the offender for holding down a player, tackling a quick tap player while being 9m offside, repeat penalties on the goal line 2 refs makes it harder to bin a player. The more people involved in a decision the less decisions that get made.
Beergardener
Roar Pro
Would love to see it used exactly how you've suggested!
Barry Lloyd
Roar Rookie
Well for a start there is no strip rule really. The note to Section 11 9 "Stealing ball" simply says ".... the ball is subsequently taken from the tackled player, a penalty will be awarded against the player or players effecting the tackle.." No explanation is provided of what stripping is so just touching the ball would count. A better change would be to make the rule what it was intended to be - a method of stopping Alfie Langer's annoying ball stealing. So penalize that alone. If you are actively involved in tackling the guy do as you like, if you are last man in and just grab the ball it's a penalty.
Professor Rosseforp
Guest
Sinbinning would break the 2 most important rules in the game, but you won't find them in the rule book: (1) keep the game flowing because everybody wants a fast, free-flowing game (2) keep the 2 sides as even as possible because everybody wants a fast, free-flowing game that is evenly poised. Given these two rules, I often wonder if rugby league referees actually serve any function at all compared to soccer or rugby union officials (can't comment on Aussie rules). Any non-contentious decisions they make could be made by the p;layers themselves, like kids playing in the park. Any contentious decisions are based on factors outside the rule-book, and the rules are merely there as a back-up excuse for the referees' actions.
Gurudoright
Guest
Any incident that looks like it will be a 2 week suspension or more should be an automatic sin bin. On most cases the average punter can see with the aid of replays that "there was nothing in that" or "that will be 3 weeks". If the average punter can say "that will be 3 weeks" why can't the refs say that that will be 10 in the bin and with that 100 suspension points taken off their suspension grading?
Jay C
Roar Guru
They can't start now. We are 2 weeks out from the finals. Changing the rules at this time of the year is crazy. It personally think the only way for this to happen is for the NRL to come out strongly and say, 'We support our referees'. Stop Archer dissecting each game on TV. It's a cheap stunt that offers nothing other than scaring the referees into their shell. Support your referees. If they are the best available, they are the best we are going to get. People who argue refereeing is at an all time low must have the most rose coloured glasses imaginable. Refereeing has never been under more scrutiny and I personally think they do a decent job. 90% of the complaints we get on here are related to 50/50 calls. So 50% of people will always be unhappy. I don't mind the bunker concept. I think if there were 2 or 3 officials watching various camera angles throughout the game. They could get in the refs ear without the world knowing about it. The moment the ball crosses the white stripe they should be reviewing the play. So that IF the referee decides to go upstairs, the fans are subjected to 1 replay from the best angle and a decision is made within that time. All without the punter even knowing about it. There are also sooo many grey areas. The strip rule for one. The obvious way to get rid of the grey area is any hand on the ball is a strip. But there needs to be an onus on ball control. So then you say right well the attacking player is responsible for keeping the ball secure. but this will stop players offloading which is one of the best parts of the game. My much longer than intended point is, before refereeing can get better, we need to start showing the men in the middle a little bit more respect.
JCVD
Guest
I couldn't agree more. I know clubs and coaches will complain that 10 minutes is too long however players will soon stop these niggling aspects of the game if they knew of the repercussions for themselves and their team. I personally don't care if it's a 50/50 call but the referees need to be aware that they too play an integral part in the overall product of the game. Our referees lack assertion compared to other codes when making a decision. I sometimes think they fail to make these calls because of the negative media it will attract as a result of complaints made by coaches, fans and clubs. No one complained over here in the UK when Sam Burgess was sent to the bin on the weekend for a minor infraction so why is it any different in the NRL? As a long time rugby league fan, it is become increasingly frustrating to watch games because of what the players are now allowed to get away with...