Sports administration at any level is difficult. From being a treasurer or manager at a local footy club where everyone is a volunteer right through to the chair of a multi-million-dollar-a-year sporting code, difficult decisions must be made.
This year’s NRL season has been notable due to a mid-season directive that is currently playing out. Mid-season changes are rare and should really be avoided at all costs and this has been a significant argument against the current high tackle furore, alongside the argument that they are changing the fabric of the game itself, whatever that may mean.
The NRL crackdown is certainly rare, but not unique as there is a parallel situation to the NRL crackdown unfolding on the other side of the world: one that is many, many times bigger than the NRL. This sport is going through a similar identity crisis at this very moment.
Major League Baseball is undergoing one its most significant crises since the steroid era in the late ’90s and early 2000s. This crisis is similar to the issues with high tackling in the NRL. The organisation is tasked with operating the league has spent so much time ignoring the issue that it now has come to a head midway through the season.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
Baseball is one of the most statistically measured sports on the planet. There would be very few sports that have even a tenth of the measurements available that can be used to measure and more importantly predict outcomes. But one stat is getting a great deal of attention: spin rate, or more accurately, the massive increase in spin rates.
Measuring spin rates is a relatively new phenomenon but has been increasingly scrutinised as a measure for a pitcher’s ability to make batters miss. But something new is happening in 2021. The delicate balance between hitter and pitcher match-ups has tilted too far and pitchers are dominating. Batting averages are falling, and strike outs are rising, fast.
There are a couple of aspects at play causing the ball to be in play less, including the increase in batters hitting for power and a change in game balls over the off-season. But the ultimate issue at play is the use of a foreign substance by pitchers.
An MLB rule states that pitchers may not have “on his person, or in his possession, any foreign substance”. This rule has some fascinating historical context, but it’s quite clear that use of foreign substances is illegal and has been for a long time.
Yet the MLB had previously gone down the same route that the NRL has with high tackles, turning a blind eye to the initially minor infractions and allowing the issue to fester for too long.
(Photo by Rod Mar/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
MLB pitchers have been experimenting and using increasingly better substances that improve the pitchers’ grip, which in turn increases spin rates and the amount of swings and misses.
These substances have become so sticky and the rule breaking is so clear that the MLB has had to act 60 games into the season. From next week pitchers identified to have used foreign substances will be suspended for ten games and more importantly cannot be replaced in the roster.
Already, with this attention, there have been a couple of pitchers whose spins rates have dropped significantly and a farcical mid-game confiscation of a pitcher’s hat. Will it change the balance between pitchers and batters back? But more importantly, is the change wanted by opposing players, as more grip did ensure better pitch command and less accidental hit-by-pitches?
And this is where the point of sports administration being difficult comes full circle. Sometimes a decision must be made that is unpopular, for the benefit of the game – or in the case of the NRL, player safety – even if the problem has come about through inaction by the administrative body to police their own set of rules.
Whether the average fan likes it or not, high tackles are illegal in the NRL and high tackles with direct contact with the head or neck, which are deemed forceful, have always been an offence that is listed as an act of foul play that can result in a player being temporarily suspended from the game or removed entirely.
The sin bin for high tackles, if anything, has been under-utilised for several seasons now. The NRL has allowed foul play to creep into the game to a point that became untenable.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
The rule for high tackles is quite clear. A player commits a misconduct when affecting or attempting to affect a tackle makes contact with the head or neck of an opponent intentionally, recklessly or carelessly. But the NRL have failed, time after time, to adjudicate this rule at its most fundamental level, so we got to a stage where a player had their jaw broken in a tackle without a penalty.
The anger by fans that the game has been changed is understandable in many ways. League fans have become accustomed to high tackles being play on despite the rules directing the referees otherwise.
Many fans see this as an attack on the fabric of the game, but that’s a redundant argument as the word spectacle does not appear in the rule book. Nor does the word accidental appear alongside high tackle.
The NRL has been incredibly ham-fisted with the mid-season change. Not through making a direction, but the inability to produce a protocol for referees to follow when appraising the level of punishment required.
It’s an administrative blunder as bad as not adjudicating high tackles until the middle of 2021 or allowing the sticky stuff to dominate baseball.
The way forward for the NRL is easy enough: create a protocol and stay the course. If the high tackle directive is walked back, and it seems it might be heading that way, the NRL as an organisation have failed at its primary role: to administer and run the league.
Administration is hard, but that’s why the likes of Peter V’landys and Andrew Abdo get paid more than the local footy club treasurer.
Joey
Guest
The crackdown (imo) is solely to avoid future litigation. They want to be seen as making every effort to make it a completely safe game, but in the same breathe, want to make the game faster, more non-stop, and so by design increasing player fatigue, and well ... injury itself.
Adam
Roar Guru
That's why this crackdown should have had some thought applied first...
GregM
Roar Rookie
the sin binning of Robson (Cowboys v Sharks) was an absolute joke - how much lower does he have to go? if he got any lower he would have been used as a door mat
BenchWarmer
Roar Rookie
Agreed, Tolman had dropped down before any Cowboys player had laid a hand on him; if they'd kept their hands off him he would've had a mouthful of dirt no doubt. You could even hear the ref say that he heard where the Cows were coming from but it was 'just how it had to be at the moment'. I'm guilty of bagging the ref as much as anyone, but the ref can't adjudicate the game properly if he's constantly being undermined by cut-and-dry edicts from above like sending a player off for high contact, even if the defender took all possible steps to avoid it.
Tom G
Roar Rookie
A ‘crackdown’ is easier to hype with pr I suspect. The current NRL ‘leadership’ is in the thrall of stunts and spin. They always remind me of the description of politicians by Sir Humphrey Appleby in Yes Minister when he said that they are obsessed with activity as it was their substitute for achievement
Heyou
Roar Rookie
:laughing: :silly: This mad comment deserved to be erased, deleted, scrubbed, Long night... My only excuse. I should have said how much I enjoyed reading your article and left it at that!
Adam
Roar Guru
Hope you got some decent sleep!
Heyou
Roar Rookie
Thoughts at midnight: Crackdowns inevitably bring the crackpots out in full force. Gus Goulash is the king of the crackpots. The ‘down’ becomes an ‘up’ and the crack’s momentum slows down to a dull ROAR. It then continues to descend into a miaowing kitten and the crackdown crackup cycle begins again. Think ‘life cycle of a butterfly’ - Its a nature/nurture thing really. Yes, there will always be inconsistencies but there is a way to cut the number of inconsistencies down considerably. Give the rule book another look, do some editing, make things clear, sort the addendums and ensure that the rules and consequences of breaking the rules relating to dangerous unacceptable actions carried out on the field of play, are as clear as a bell rather than as clear as mud. The old rule book needs to become the ‘New Beaut NRL Rule Book’ (they are making their very own brand of RL, or so it seems to me). The standard of educating the stakeholders regarding the ‘New Beaut’ edition of the rule book needs to be developed by experts in the field of educating. The coaches, trainers and players should be required to go through a series of professional development courses to ensure they know and understand the ‘clear as a bell rules’ and consequences of breaking said rules, back to front and upside down. The official game adjudicators will need to have their own professional development courses that must be passed with a 90% accuracy rate and must include long stints of practical development before they are declared fit to adjudicate first grade games. New certified courses are needed to ensure CONSISTENCY of knowledge, understanding. application and high degrees of objective accuracy in adjudication. Now then, The ‘State of Origin’ brand needs its very own rule book I reckon. A ‘Crackdown on the crackdown’ needs to be applied. The bunker guys might need and extra certificate course on what they can adjudicate on, when they can adjudicate, how many slow mo replays and rewinds are permissible and how the adjudication response is provided to the match referee. So you can plainly see I’ve got no clue and don’t know what I’m actually talking about, but it all comes down to what is an acceptable tackle and what is not. Applying the rules and the consequences to the full scope of the New Beaut Rule Book won’t be easy. It’s not a job for the faint-hearted or feeble-minded. What are the statistics regarding head injuries since the advent of the 2021 hardline in head highs? Have we seen an improvement? Too early to say? I need to go do some research and I’m hoping the incidents requiring HIA’s has fallen and will continue to fall to an acceptable level, whatever that might be. Zero to New Beaut Rule Book Hero? I’ve given myself a well-deserved uppercut. I accept the consequences of my actions.
Big Daddy
Roar Rookie
The Reece Robson incident tonight was a very good example of a playe not being able to adjust. Tolman decided to go low and did before he even reached Robson. Robson had no time to adjust and couldn't pull out. The administration have obviously decided the ball carrier cannot he touched above the head and the referee's have been instructed accordingly to sin bin any player transgressing.
Adam
Roar Guru
Because all those examples are legal...
Cugel
Roar Rookie
Pitchers are deliberately cheating by knowingly breaking a rule with forethought versus a split second misjudgement or are (as in the Hetherington incident) actually blameless, are being portrayed as equivalent. I think not
Cugel
Roar Rookie
Yep, hung his arm out to hopefully block the pass, and Pap fell into it.
Cugel
Roar Rookie
I am not exposed to Joey and Gus, are they actually saying players should be allowed to head high tackle?
Cugel
Roar Rookie
Yes, no amount of penalties, crying, and article writing can prevent that type of incident. So I don't know where we will end up on them. Admitting it was accidental will be a complete backflip on all that has transpired, are they really going to do that? If they do, some Roarers will need counselling.
Cugel
Roar Rookie
When a player gets hammered in a perfectly legal rib tackle and his head whiplashes: Ignored When a player puts his head in the wrong spot when attempting a tackle and goes to Disneyland: Ignored When teammates accidentally clash heads: Ignored When opposite players accidentally clash heads: Ignored When head trauma is caused by general impacts: Ignored The intellectually honest would be calling for a complete ban. Or do they accept that head contact is an inevitable part of a contact sport but just refuse to admit it?
Muzz
Guest
Great read Adam. It doesn't help things when Fatty Vautin and the other dinosaurs keep harping on about the game becoming soft.
JGK
Roar Guru
Have done. Many times.
Nick Maguire
Roar Rookie
Nice one Adam. The comparison with MLB is interesting because pitchers have been run for foreign substances or "spitters" in the past, just as RL players used to get sent off. It seems that the star power of players meant the administrators wanted them on the field at almost any cost, to the detriment of the game I feel.
Rob
Guest
Suggest you go and watch the footage again.
Adam
Roar Guru
should being the operative word. I just made the mistake of listening to the 6 Tackles with Gus podcast and it honestly makes me question what the future of NRL is, but not for the reasons he thinks. It's because people actually listen to the man. He genuinely thinks that high tackles are OK... But I like your suggestion of a manual and I hope that the league is creating something along those lines to shut us all up, because then we can all go back to complaining about the bunker and forward passes...