The NRL’s decision to suspend South Sydney’s Sam Burgess has left more than a few people up in arms, so to speak.
The facts of the matter are simple – as Burgess charged towards the defence, he braced for contact and his arm caught Bulldogs centre Josh Morris on the throat.
Burgess appears to have been charged and suspended for an act that goes unpunished hundreds of times over the course of a weekend.
Watching it live, I was a little surprised that it was even a penalty, let alone something worthy of being placed on report. Rugby league fans love their forwards to run straight, true and hard, and in a collision sport played at high speed, accidents like this happen regularly.
I’ll accept that in these situations, a penalty is usually a reasonable outcome and everyone will get on with things. There was no doubt about the high contact on Morris, who was clearly in some bother before he shook himself off and played out the game.
I was bemused, but not too bothered, that it was placed on report. Hell, everything gets placed on report these days. It’s a good way to ‘tag’ moments to look at later, away from the heat of battle.
Even when I heard that Burgess had been formally charged with ‘dangerous contact – head/neck (grade one)’, I wasn’t too concerned.
Usually when things like this get to the judiciary, they’re recognised for what they are – an accident born of no malicious intent, from an action that happens dozens of times in each game.
The immediate reaction of the players involved was also telling – there was not a lot of overt remonstration or squaring up from the nearby Bulldogs players, aside from Morris’ brother, Brett.
They all understand that these things can happen, it’s the nature of the game.
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So I was amazed when Mal Cochrane, Tony Puletua and Dallas Johnson – three former players who were no shrinking violets when it came to heavy impact – were convinced by the NRL’s argument that Burgess had “shirked” a player’s duty of care to avoid high contact.
The end result? A two-week holiday for an accident.
It obviously didn’t help Burgess that he had 85 carry over points in his pocket, which blew the suspension out to two games, but the 140 points that came with the dangerous contact charge was excessive.
In fact, the charge never should have been laid in the first place.
The suspension and its rationale send a confusing message when we take into consideration another couple of incidents from Round 4.
If the NRL’s argument is that Burgess failed in his duty of care to avoid high contact, why wasn’t Jason Taumalolo suspended for his destruction of Penrith’s Isaah Yeo on Thursday night?
The big Cowboy’s shoulder knocked Yeo out cold and ended his night. We all marvelled at the raw power and impact, and watched in glorious slow motion over and over again.
But according to the NRL, shouldn’t Taumalolo have been a tad more careful?
AAP Image/Julian Smith
Why didn’t Wests Tigers captain Russell Packer get a week off for raising his free arm into the side of Kaysa Pritchard’s head, knocking the Eels rake out and sending him to the bench for a head injury assessment?
Maybe Packer should have been more considerate of his opponent?
Pritchard and Yeo are no guarantees to take their places in the Panthers and Eels’ line-ups this week but, just like the Burgess impact, there was little to no remonstration and it was accepted as part of the game.
If Burgess’ suspension is the new standard, what should forwards do now? More half-hearted runs to the defensive line before turning their back for contact and pretending to look for an offload? Trotting forward before diving at the approaching tacklers to be ready to play the ball quickly?
That’s not what I want. That’s not what fans expect of their big boppers, and I dare say that Souths coach Anthony Seibold and the other 15 NRL coaches would guarantee a short career for a forward who didn’t charge the line hard.
Souths and Burgess have every right to be livid with the judiciary’s decision. All he did was his job.
Some things just make you shake your head
A long, long time ago I wrote about mind-shattering, coach-destroying and fan-enraging decisions from players at critical points of a game.
We had another doozy during the Canberra and Manly game on Saturday. It was a crucial game from the Raiders’ point of view to avoid a winless start to season 2018, but it quickly became a disaster.
After at one stage trailing a clinical Sea Eagles side by 22 points, the Raiders managed to steady themselves, wrestle back control and started to turn the tables.
With 20 minutes left, the gap had closed to 12 points and Manly were on the ropes – Canberra were coming hard and you sensed the men in green believed that a miracle was well and truly possible.
Enter Joey Leilua.
AAP Image/Mick Tsikas
As Manly prepared to restart play from the 20-metre line, Leilua thought it would be an excellent idea to knock the ball out of Matthew Wright’s hands.
There was no rhyme or reason to it, just something he thought the moment called for.
Leilua was penalised (miraculously avoiding being sin binned) and under a minute later, Wright scored up the other end of the field. Game over.
When you’re struggling, you need everything to go right. Canberra had worked their collective butts off to get into a position to steal an unlikely win and reboot their season.
In one swipe, Leilua threw all of his teammates’ hard work away.
Your guess is as good as mine as to what he was thinking. But actions like that are the type of soul-destroying idiocy that leaves coaches and fans speechless.
Billl Brown
Guest
Surgess as I said has a habit of raising his forearm and needs to eradicate this from his game - This 2 week suspension should be a wake up call for him to not do it anymore.
Billl Brown
Guest
Deserved to be suspended as it was - Surgess has a habit of raising his forearm as well
GetSerious
Guest
You’re kidding yourself.... or blind!!! He led with a raised elbow, in case you need further explanation, high and away from the body. Or even better try watching the footage with your eyes open.
Bumsy
Roar Rookie
I'm more curious as to why Montoya didn't get any sort of punishment for nailing G Burgess in the back of the head with the ball? If it was an empty water bottle he would have got 2 weeks.
steveng
Roar Rookie
'Adam Bagnall' Souths and the Dragons have only met 3 times in the last 2 years and the Dragons only won 1 of those. In 2016 Round 3 Souths 6, Dragons 8 and in Round 11 Souths 34, Dragons 24. In 2017 they only met on 1 occasion in Round 22 Souths 26, Dragons 24. I wouldent put too many question marks on Souths defeating the Dragons, as the Rabbits have a good record against the Dragons and it will be a close game. As far as Sammy is concerned, I'm still of the opinion that it was harsh and inappropriate. Bunnies by 10+ against the Dragons, that's how confident I am.
steveng
Roar Rookie
The bottom line here is, that Josh Morris is going to play for the next 2 rounds (he wasn't hurt and/or injured) while Sam Burgess is not. If Josh would have been injured and would have incurred a serious injury then "Fair Enough' Sam deserves 2 weeks but, he wasn’t! With Sammy missing the next 2 games, it will have an enormous impact on Souths, their next 2 games are against the Dragons and the Roosters. This is a very big blow for Souths, Sam virtually and only slapped Josh in an accidental way. This could have a very big impact on Souths season, which is not fair, especially when other incidents have been let go or treated lightly (and completely let go) and not severely punished like Sam was.
AJ Mithen
Expert
Great points well made mycall!
AJ Mithen
Expert
Well put Richard. Morris is probably going to play this week.
Mycall
Guest
Try this yourself at home: holding a ball, make sure the ball, your wrist and your shoulder all remain above the elbow and then tell me you have cocked your elbow. More than just a little bit of onus needs to be placed on the defender who was rushing from the side and was trying to make as big an impact as possible to hopefully with the help of 3 more defenders get Burgess back in goal. Instead of tackling with his shoulder, he has lead with his chest. For mine, Morris tackling effort was a joke, he had 6ft of Burgess to tackle and he found his elbow. If I was Morris, I would be embarrassed at how that mistackle has been replayed ad nauseam. I simply cannot fathom how the NRL and the judiciary believe that Burgess has done something illegal. That he has essentially used his ball carrying arm to elbow a defender is just laughable. It was a freak accident and should have been left at that. I guess the Burgi are not well liked at the judiciary, was it one of the twins that got 3 weeks for throwing a water bottle ? Speaking of idiotic plays how about Mantoya throwing the ball at the back of a players head and not even being penalised. Can only wonder how many weeks he would have got if the player took a dive ?
Richard in Madison, WI USA
Guest
Sam Burgess is 6' 5" tall. Josh Morris is just short of 6' even. If Burgess holds his arms up to hug the ball tightly and brace for impact, his arms aren't going to be at chest level on someone the height of Josh Morris, they're going to be throat/face high. Someone as tall as Burgess would need to hold his arms unnaturally low, and in a position that affords little protection from impact or solid ball control to get around this issue. It's a height mismatch problem. Not sure how to solve it......Have a height minimum to play NRL? Have a height maximum to play? With any player as tall as and strong as Slammin' Sam, running into just about anyone too much shorter is bound to cause a problem like this one just because of the height disparity. Although Sam does seem to have a touch of the punishing beast in him that comes out now and again, I didn't get that "I'm gonna destroy this guy" vibe from watching the replay a few times. Just an unfortunate accident in a rough game. Sam's punishment is way overboard in my opinion. Also, hoping Josh is without serious damage from all of this.
Forty Twenty
Guest
Hopoate must be about the silliest player to ever run on the field. I was at Brookie that day and you can't see from the footage but he charged about 30 metres to attack the player, absolutely ridiculous. I can't remember being that much in front on the scoreboard.
AJ Mithen
Expert
FYI guys - i did some digging and could got this... http://www.canberratimes.com.au/rugby-league/canberra-raiders/david-shillingtons-sendoff-where-he-sits-among-nrls-bad-boys-20150811-giwd4z.html David Shillington! Bloody hell. Not in a million years would you think of him when it comes to send offs.
Worlds Biggest
Guest
Good post 007, the inconsistencies with these charges and suspensions are incredible.
Forty Twenty
Guest
Good question, the game is a lot cleaner now but it is not so great when you lose a player to an illegality in a game and the offender stays on the field to guide his team to a win. Critical in GF'S of course and the last player taken out from memory was Snake Stewart. Hanley was the other one I remember. Great rewards are on offer for these 'accidents'.
Big Daddy
Guest
Forty twenty, Burning question- who was the last player sent. TBH I can't really remember.
AJ Mithen
Expert
Are you talking about Tevetano v Ben Nakubuwai? cos if you are, I don't know what 'precedent' that set Christopher!
Forty Twenty
Guest
I had a good look at the video and it is black and white what happened. Yeo and JT2 were both perfect in their actions , body on body , no problem with either player. The whole issue was Fisher Harris crashing into Yeo which pushed Yeos head into JT's head. It is the same problem with Packer , a third player charging in slightly later than the others causing mayhem. This is a trend based on stopping the big units like JT but there is a price to pay.
AJ Mithen
Expert
I agree that there's a duty of care - in recent years the Hurrell high knees and a couple of extra high forearms and elbows across the journey show there's a time and a place where suspensions are needed. But Burgess v Morris wasn't anywhere near that level. Where it gets confusing is when there's a high impact plus bad outcome like Packer v Pritchard... And no action is taken.
Dave
Guest
Aiden Sezer copped two elbows after the raiders kicked off to the warriors at the end of the game the other week. They both were worse than the Burgess offence. If the refs penalise the first one the raiders win the game.
AJ Mithen
Expert
All good points, but Taumalolo wasn't bumped into Yeo - watch the footage. He ran straight at him and blasted him. If anything, he slightly turned his shoulder into the tackler. And I think that hitup was awesome, by the way. But did it meet a duty of care to Yeo?