Roosters coach Trent Robinson and Souths counterpart Wayne Bennett agree that rewarding classical legs tackles would help the NRL’s quest to limit high shots.
Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson says the only thing wrong with the NRL’s crackdown on high shots is the timing.
Robinson stressed players need an off-season to re-learn how to tackle low, while he urged his counterparts, who are lamenting the fall of rugby league as we knew it, to “calm down”.
12 players have been sin-binned and Canberra prop Josh Papalii sent off across five games at Brisbane’s Magic Round so far, with the NRL-era round record of 14 sin-bins in clear danger of being broken on Sunday.
The sudden rise has come as part of a two-pronged crackdown across the game on high tackles and repeated ruck infringements, with the NRL desperate to eradicate dangerous contact and the deliberate slow-down of attack.
Canberra coach Ricky Stuart and Canterbury opposite Trent Barrett both took aim at the edict after their Saturday game, Barrett likening it to Oztag and Stuart declaring it was becoming a “completely different game”.
Cowboys coach Todd Payten agreed that the physicality he’s always loved in rugby league appeared to be disappearing and that it should “go back to the way it was”.
But Robinson, who has seen up-close the toll concussion has on a player with the recent forced retirement of Jake Friend and battles of captain Boyd Cordner, was more measured.
“I’ve heard some people say ‘it’s not the Game 1 remember’ – just calm down, we’ll get there and get it right,” he said.
“There’s been an over-compensation (this weekend) that’s easy to see but we need to tackle lower, we can’t just loosely have head highs and go, ‘I didn’t mean it’.
“We need to get better at not hitting others in the head.
“We only had two head highs in the game and both were sin-binned, whereas in a normal game we’d have five, maybe? So it worked in our game.”
Robinson agreed the trend to gang-tackle a player above their waste to slow the play-the-ball had meant a classical one-on-one legs tackle, which allows for a quicker play-the-ball, was now rarely seen or coached.
Querying the Round 10 introduction of the edict, he said players needed an off-season to learn that technique and that it needed to be rewarded by officials.
Robinson has the support of Penrith coach Ivan Cleary and Rabbitohs mentor Wayne Bennett, who would love to see “the greatest tackle in the game” return.
“One of the anomalies of the game is you make a beautiful legs tackle and they just roll straight out of it (or get penalised for hanging on too long),” Bennett said.
“That’s what brought in all the higher stuff; the coaches wanted to dictate that on-the-ground situation, slow the play-the-balls down and there’s no reward for a beautiful legs tackle.
“Let’s get the legs tacklers back.”
Ethan
Roar Rookie
Robinson is the voice of reason. Legs tackles should mean allowing defenders to hold on longer to slow down the ruck and for markers to be in position. No more head high tackles
DP Schaefer
Roar Rookie
Peiera was an accident. Teddy doesn't slip and it's a nice hard hit to the torso. He didn't have much time to change the impact. Have you ever been in a position to make a tackle like that? You set yourself and when the decision is made you can't do a lot to change your motion, and he was aiming for the torso. Even if the tacklee grew spike the last second you couldn't stop yourself.
farkurnell
Roar Rookie
Yes Rob , the Jury’s still out on whether the new Stripping Rule is progress or regress.Mind you by the end of the season there’ll probably be a new interpretation handed down from above:
Albo
Roar Rookie
And Neil Pringle !
Pomoz
Roar Rookie
Yes, the game is so much safer, yet Cordner hasn’t played for six months and Friend has retired. The current crackdown is not an over reaction. The current crack down is exactly what should have been done years ago, but the refs were too frightened to send players off because they get criticised in the media. As Robinson said, calm down, the right balance will be found and the minor accidental knocks will be a penalty only. But let’s be clear, the right balance isn’t reverting back to a penalty because the contact was accidental. You have a responsibility to make sure that you don’t smack anybody in the head. Fuimano, Papali and Eseese’s tackles were, poor technique, lazy and reckless. Papenhausen shouldn’t be stretchered off because Fuimano can’t be bothered to bend his knees. Katoa shouldn’t be needing scans on his jaw because Papali couldn’t be bothered to bend his knees and wrap his arms around. The scariest thing in league is not PVL. The scariest thing is league is listening to people like Stuart and realising that so many of people in league are still dinosaurs who don’t realise the game will be wiped out if they don’t change.
Paul
Roar Guru
I can use the Kaufusi hit as a bench mark because the NRL hasn't come out and said "sorry folks, we got the penalty wrong". Until they do, or until they come up with stiffer penalties for similar incidents, if I was a lawyer I'd be using that example, when it came time to deciding the severity of the penalty.
Paul
Roar Guru
Agreed, but that was a benchmark they set and they've said or done nothing to change it.
Paul
Roar Guru
The NRL doesn't acknowledge they stuffed up with Kaufusi's suspension so until they do, I and others will continue to use that as an example. In the case of Peirera, prior to the changes implemented this round, IMO he deserved 2 weeks. If he'd done the same thing on the weekend, he have copped 4 or more for sure. Ditto with Kaufusi
TJ
Guest
Sick to death of hearing people use the Kaufusi incident to justify why another play should only receive x amount of weeks. The NRL completely stuffed up on Kaufusi's suspension. That doesn't mean other players should get lighter suspensions because the NRL got it wrong earlier in the year.
farkurnell
Roar Rookie
So you agree Philbent. Even an educated gorilla like you could see the Townsend tackle was accidental. Maybe in your perfect Utopian World everything is avoidable, but in my world and NRL world ,accidents happen and should be treated accordingly. In a couple of weeks when this PR Blitz is over,there will be dozens of head brushes that go unpunished during the rest of the season.Unfortunately the injustice to the Sharks will be put down to collateral damage.
Philbert
Guest
Stupid babies like you need the most attention. RL is a contact sport. But avoidable contact with the head has always been banned. always. The crackdown is on avoidable contact. Only an ape wouldn't have known that.
mushi
Roar Guru
:shocked:
Philbert
Guest
Agreed. Although if Gould and PvL met, the next rule change would be "there are NO rules"
Paul
Roar Guru
I've no idea what they practice Rob. I'd assume they practice mostly the types of tackles each position would be expected to make
Philbert
Guest
I just love how quickly most of the people on this forum have turned against V'Landys...as if they didn't have a clue about the inevitability of supporting populist policies. This is what ALWAYS happens. Populists make decisions on a whim, and not with any considered thought. Last year, V'Landys is a hero for bring the NRL back early after disregarding advice. You loved him then. He then feels empowered to start the "six-again rule" on a whim. Works for a while until coaches are able to exploit it, and players start getting injured because of the pace of the game - two factors ANY considered consultation or investigation would have revealed...if a consultation took place. Some love it, some hate it. People start to waver on V'Landys. He then - on a whim - introduces this crackdown as a populist reaction to foul play....and we see what we are seeing this week. Whereas a more considered consultation with all relevant parties would have seen the introduction of a better policy that would have this blowback. Once fans saw their players get sent off, people now hate V'Landys. But what is he doing? He's simply responding to YOUR short sighted complaints. People can say what they want about Greenburg and Beattie - but they don't rush to make decisions, based off the opinions of a few yobbos calling into Uncle Ray. Their decision making was more nuanced. The dangers of populism.
Tim Buck 3
Roar Rookie
I like the idea of punishing the 3 man gang tackle.
Rob
Guest
Unfortunately a player died to get the shoulder charge looked at. The impact of the shoulder hit the bloke in the heart and force stopped his heart. Same place Tupounia tries to hit every time he drops in the shoulder into a bloke without the ball.
Rob
Guest
So Robbo teaches wrestling and his players don’t practice tackling low?
Rob
Guest
What did you make of his excitement at slapping his own head and yelling at the ref about sending Burr off? He made that move with the interchange card look pretty slick too. Has he been practicing it?
Rob
Guest
Robbo gets it. Players like JWH, Tupounia, Crieghton, Radley, Napa and the hit man Sonny Bill were always encouraged to tackle responsible.