I thoroughly enjoyed the football served up by Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga on Saturday night.
Sure, there was no structure, but their ‘devil may care’ attitude made it so entertaining to watch.
Four teams playing footy in the style many of us remember from when we were growing up.
Another thing I really enjoyed was the lack of ‘grubbiness’ in both games. Besides one incident, which can be best described as a ‘knee-jerk reaction’ (pardon the pun), I didn’t witness one chicken-wing, not one crusher or cannonball tackle, nor one shoulder charge. No wrestling holds, no head or leg locks, nothing!
Which brings me to Friday night’s game. Just what was Adam Blair thinking?
Seriously? Not only has he put himself in a position where he could be suspended for four games, but he could have also seriously hurt one of his club teammates in the process, and risked putting them both out of action for a month or more.
A mate of mine (who just happens to be a Broncos supporter) said he didn’t believe Blair meant it. I argue that he may not have deliberately intended that it be Sam Thaiday to whom he did it, but he definitely ‘meant’ it. Whether he ‘meant’ it consciously or subconsciously is another thing.
Footballers these days have become so conditioned to using wrestling holds in tackles to slow the play down that for some, it has just become second nature to grapple in an effort to dominate the tackled player.
So who’s to blame?
Craig Bellamy.
While every team does it, who introduced it to our game?
Stand up and take a bow, Mr Bellamy. Your willingness to adopt at-all-costs tactics has almost single-handedly led to the demise of entertaining rugby league.
Coaches used to come up with plays like the ‘Mouse Hole’, the ‘Wall’, the ‘Up the Jumper’ and, of course, the ‘Bomb’, all of which were designed to score tries, not maim the opposition.
I know the NRL have taken steps to remove these tactics from the game but coaches continually appear to be working on finding new martial art moves and holds. It has made watching a tackled player and tackler on the ground these days akin to watching a UFC bout.
The way things are going, I’m sure it won’t be long before a bit of ‘Bakom’, ‘Bokator’ or ‘Lerdrit’ finds its way onto the field.
We need to take a Jim Cowans-style approach and mete out penalties that will have players questioning whether they want to simply tackle the opposition and be playing again next week, or try and see it they can reassemble their opponent’s limbs and spend a lengthy stint on the sidelines.
Boydy-In-Brisbane
Guest
I'm fairly sure the editors at The Roar would publish my article if it were defamatory as you suggest Morf. In my opinion, the Storm were the team that introduced new tactics that embellished the already oft-used wrestling techniques. Which team did the first see use a "chicken wing" or "crusher" tackle? That's my point. Incidentally mate, you may want to take a look at a dictionary, Decommission: v. To deactivate; shut down.
Morfs
Guest
Can I ask what your source is for this claim? Accusing a coach of ordering his players to deliberately injure the opposition (surely 'decommission' cannot be meant any other way) sounds awfully close to defamation to me. Just another north-of-the-border anti-Storm, anti-Bellamy rant. You can't even support your argument with any evidence.
Boydy-In-Brisbane
Guest
I'm not blaming Bellamy because Gus says to, where on earth did you get that idea? Yes I know wrestling techniques have been around since the nineties but Bellamy was the man who instructed his players to decommission opposition players with tactics designed to injure their opponents or at the very least make them wary of resisting in tackles next time..
Sleiman Azizi
Roar Guru
The administration is to blame for not put their foot down when they have the chance.
Red Dog
Guest
RIP league .
Benedict Arnold
Guest
Blair has been a grub all year at the donkeys, and guess what, Wayne likes it. This article definitely misses the mark and points the finger without knowing the full history. The broncos were actually the first club to employ wrestling tackles in the nineties but you just go and blame Melbourne. They did not introduce it to the game. As for them being teammates. well, anyone who comes from NZ knows that the pinnacle and ultimate privilege is to represent your country in sport. It overrides everything else. Any regular friendships and niceties are discarded the moment you step on the field. That is how much it means to them. This idea that you should consider your fellow club teammate and regular season competition is a bit of a slap in the face to the international format. It shows that some people just don't value the importance of this game. Maybe that is why mal has been going on about restoring pride to the kangaroos jumper, it shows it mustn't have been getting that much value or respect. But then again, I don't know what his version of pride means when he picks someone who is Fijian for Australia. For me, that isn't respecting the jumper.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
Whoever changed the rules is to blame. For 100 years we had one tackle format, that was it. Now we have "dominant" tackles, where defenders can linger longer in the tackle and wrestling is rewarded. Voluntary tackes are no longer penalised and are classed as "surrender". belamy has just expolited it best
Tom Rock
Expert
I think Gus is systematically trying to eliminate every successful tactic in the game, hoping it will give the Panthers a better chance. Next he will be arguing for salary cap dispensation for players with hyphenated names.
Alex L
Roar Rookie
Actually, it was the Broncos under Wayne Bennett who started having wrestling coaches on their staff back in the late 1990s, but no worries just keep blaming Bellamy because Phil Gould said so.