Total madness: The sin binning of Joseph Leilua

With 16 minutes remaining of the Saturday afternoon match between the Canberra Raiders and the Sydney Roosters I realised with complete certainty that the inmates are running the NRL asylum.

When Gavin Reynolds sent Joseph Leilua to the sin bin for punching it became apparent that common sense had been excised from the game and in its place there were rulings so bizarre that they defied logic and fair play.

In the 64th minute Sydney Roosters prop Dylan Napa hit a Raiders player high for the second time in the match. The first incident was in the eighth minute where Napa hit Raiders winger Jordan Rapana in the head with a swinging arm. Napa was put on report for that incident and I’ll be very surprised if he isn’t suspended.

His high shot on Leilua looked just as bad, if not worse, as his first effort.

Through our effects mic I heard someone say, “he’s already on report.” I genuinely thought there was a possibility that Napa would be given his marching orders.

But instead, in a moment so surreal and comical it should have included the boys from Monty Python and the Benny Hill music, Joey Leilua was – on instructions from Bernard Sutton in the NRL bunker – sin binned for punching Napa.

The replay showed that Leilua had struck Napa following the high tackle. The gurus in the bunker decided that Napa’s swinging arm to Leilua’s head – although it was his second of the night – only merited a penalty. However, since the knee jerk actions following the hysteria caused by Paul Gallen’s flurry of punches into Nate Myles’ super sized melon in Origin One 2013, any player who throws and connects with a punch must be sin binned.

There is no room for considering even the clearest of provocations.

While there isn’t a court in the land that wouldn’t agree that Leilua was sorely provoked by Napa, because Leilua threw a punch he went to the sin bin while Napa was free to stay on the field.

Strictly speaking, the boys in the bunker followed the rules to the letter. This is not a case of misinterpretation. It is a case of an unanticipated scenario coming to life that exposes the stupidity of introducing black and white rules in reaction to public hysteria.

With possibly the exception of Gavin Reynolds on the ground, and Bernard Sutton in the bunker, I doubt there was a person anywhere watching who was not dismayed that Leilua was sin binned while Napa was free to continue playing.

Just to highlight how bizarre the ruling was, the Raiders still received a penalty for Napa’s high tackle. Surely a sin binning outranks a high shot that wasn’t deemed worthy of being put on report.

Sutton and Reynolds could have made the Leilua far less ludicrous if they had sin binned Napa as well for his repeated infringement, an option clearly open to them under the rules of the game.

However, everyone knows there’s only two reasons referees have the courage to sin bin these days: punching and clearly cheating to stop a possible try. The last referee with the courage to use the bin as clearly allowed under the rules of the game was Bill Harrigan.

Even Roosters player Sam Moa, talking to News Ltd, said he thought it was a strange event.

“It was a bit of laughable moment that one. I actually felt sorry for Joey, getting hit high. I don’t think there is much margin within the rule book for [the officials] to [apply common sense].”

The punching rule isn’t just flawed because common sense seemingly can’t be applied by officials. It is also flawed because it is only applied to punching. That is, striking another player with a closed fist. It doesn’t include pushing or slapping an opponent in the head. That is just fine by the officials on the field and in the bunker.

We know that because In the 59th minute of the game Latrell Mitchell was clearly seen during the Bunker reviews to have struck Canberra Raiders player Elliot Whitehead with an open fist and the Raiders didn’t even get a penalty.

Sam Moa again: “…blokes are starting to slap, because it is not a closed fist. It is not classed as a punch being an open handed slap but in my opinion I think it is worse to get slapped to get punched.”

So we now have the situation where a player can be smashed illegally by an opponent but should he – in the red haze of anger caused by that injustice – strike back with a closed fist he can sit on the pine for ten minutes while his attacker is free to play on – although the assailant may still be penalised.

We also have the situation where you are seemingly free to go on a slap-a-thon to incite and put off your opponents and your side won’t even get penalised – just as long as your fist isn’t closed.

I’d be stunned if there was a single person at NRL HQ who thinks this state of affairs is reasonable or sustainable. It is clearly total madness.

The rumour mill has it that by the end of this week the NRL will have a new CEO. Might I suggest that her/his first order of business is to a) include a provision for officials to be able to consider provocation in regards to any incident involving punching; and b) include any method of striking an opponent’s head – whether it be with an open fist, closed fist, forehead, elbow, or knee – as a sin bin offence.

If this isn’t done ASAP don’t be surprised to see an explosion in niggly and provocative tactics in our game that are directly performed to try and get opponents punching and sin binned.

And be prepared to witness more mystifyingly bizarre – and probably game changing – moments of mind boggling injustice.