Does anyone else have that feeling of deja vu all over again?
The actions of an NRL trainer have again made headlines. Depending on which team you support, the intervention of Penrith trainer Peter Green may have unfairly influenced the outcome of Saturday night’s game of the season between Penrith and Parramatta. It was an epic battle, but sadly our collective attention has been hijacked by the controversy caused by the trainer requesting a halt to the game just as Parramatta established attacking field position in the final minutes of the match.
I’m not too interested in whether the trainer made the right call or not, but I am interested in the integrity of the game. Accordingly, I believe anyone on the field who is not competing should be completely and utterly neutral.
What if teams did not have their own on-field trainers? What if teams did not have their own medico carry out head injury assessments? What if every non-playing person on the field came from a neutral pool and the NRL allocated out the officials to the game each week? Imagine the peace it would bring to the kingdom.
For one, it would get the trainers off the field. If trainers were not mobile coaches, defence setters and carrier pigeons, they would not have to spend so much time on the field. This would reduce their visibility, their impact and the likelihood of them influencing play. Dare to dream of a game in which they only go on with a water bottle during breaks in play.
It would also elevate the role of captain. Remember the good old days when the captain had some gravitas and actually led the team during the match? Someone like Mal Meninga or Paul Harragon – someone who inspired and was able to impose their personality on their teammates. Now close your eyes and think of the last game you watched and picture one team standing behind their goalposts and one person doing all the talking. I bet it is the trainer.
In the modern game the captain wears high-vis and runs in from the sideline a lot. Compare this with the player with the ‘C’ next to their name, who I suspect is chosen because they are presentable and unlikely to embarrass the club during the off-season.
Thirdly and perhaps most importantly, this plan would improve the perception of neutrality. Yes, I know referees come in for flak, and so will all match officials, even neutral trainers. The neutral trainer will make mistakes and annoy us occasionally, but they are unlikely to be accused of bias and will have a much smaller role to play regardless. This neutrality should even see the trainer equipped with enough self-discipline to resist joining in the push on shove should it spill over the sidelines.
It would close the salary cap loophole too. I’m hazy on the details, but surely a framework that regulates the numbers and salaries of trainers would assist in addressing the current salary cap loophole that sees ex-players taking up the golden water bottle upon retirement.
Finally, it could open up refereeing pathways. There are a lot of ex-players out there who want to stay involved in the game and need employment. The NRL should consider creating a framework in which ex-players are able to remain close to the game, learn new skills and be given opportunities to find employment as match officials of varying types.
Ex-players – maybe even normal people one day – can register for the training pool when they retire and then, depending on desire and ability, work their way up from water boy to trainer to video referee, to touchie and even to on-field referee if they wish. The game needs to encourage more ex-players to take up the whistle. Establishing a central pool that severs the link with clubland will assist.
The presence of club-affiliated trainers on the playing field has been an avoidable blight on the NRL for many seasons. Surely the time has come to reduce their influence and allow the players to think for themselves.
There are probably hundreds of other ways the NRL could address the problem, but I’d just like them to start.
Nat
Roar Guru
Hate the thought, can't disagree.
mushi
Roar Guru
It’s not so much that seedy underbelly. It's just that the qualities that get you to become a doctor, let alone a club doctor, have nothing to do with being ethical. First three qualities that get you in the door are memory, rational problem solving and drive. Same three qualities that make a top shelf grifter. The ethical standards we often talk about are really regulations because you need to overlay something which would be there if each individual self regulated. they get called ethics to make it sound more noble. Even beyond that if you’re part of a club, paid by the club, work for the club longer than the average player will play… then you’re primarily invested in the club. That creates a bias to your decision making that is tough to overcome on the run.
Tom G
Roar Rookie
Neutral trainers? Great idea!! Maybe we could trial neutral referees next
Nat
Roar Guru
I know I'm idealistic at times. Especially these days, I hate the thought of some dodgy cutman with a smoke hanging out telling them to harden up. Or worse, the thought a club might move a Doc on because he did make a overly conservative approach during a big game.
mushi
Roar Guru
Isn't that basically the rule now? Wasn't the free interchange here was caused by the high shot on report earlier in the match.
mushi
Roar Guru
Nat you realise that if we could trust that: then there wouldn't be HIA's and concussion protocols.
Paul Monaro
Roar Rookie
That's certainly some good food for thought and a well-written piece.
Nat
Roar Guru
I don't think Haas has ever noticed him on the field.
Don
Roar Rookie
It’s a crazy scenario isn’t it? Being able to cause a game to be stopped is an incredible responsibility and power. Yet we allow a bloke with no defined experience or skill and an overwhelming interest in affecting the game to favour his employer do it. Bring some accountability into it with the mandatory 10 minutes off the park and an interchange should a trainer invoke the power to request a game to be stopped.
Paul
Roar Guru
and maybe another behind the in-goal area for players waiting for a try conversion
The Final Word
Roar Rookie
That's an interesting concept. So is neutral referees. But given the performances in aid of the Panthers this year by Grant Atkins and Ashley Klein, neutral and unbiased are relative terms. Who polices the police? Given the trainer's original function of keeping the players hydrated and assessing injuries and tending to minor ones, their role has now morphed into being the coach's personal messenger boy and now to holding up play and denying the opposition attacking and scoring opportunities. One could think the next step in their current evolution would be to have a Dally M award for most influential trainer and then, one day, even Trainer Try of the Year. :laughing: In other words, they are way too involved in the game.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Neutral doctors are a must. I don't think this can be solved by giving responsibility to different people, they will all have valid reasons to stop the play at the slightest hint of injury. That is why I think we should treat every player going down as a serious injury and make sure they either go off for the rest of the game, just to be sure, or at least make sure they get a full HIA, just to be sure.
Rellum
Roar Guru
Do you see Alfie making that call correctly 95% of the time?
Rellum
Roar Guru
Players will just fall down in the way if that is the rule.
no one in particular
Roar Guru
No, the training staff know what injuries players have been carrying and previously suffered. They are able to quickly diagnose and treat based on this knowledge Only HIA spotting and assessment should be independent
Nat
Roar Guru
I think you have to trust the integrity of a doctor, especially when it comes to HIAs. My concern is the initial on-field assessment is carried out by the trainer. 95% of the time they are right but it very obvious and dangerous when they are wrong.
Dwanye
Roar Rookie
Na, won’t work. Too much common sense. Harder to abuse
dogs
Guest
We're already like soccer with players staying down to make sure the ref sees an infringement. So I'd like the soccer rule where only the ref can stop play, and nobody else is allowed on the field until he does.
Don
Roar Rookie
I was actually going to add that outside of when a try has been scored, then water delivery is via designated areas on each side of the field that players can run to. Teams can park a trainer on each side stocked with drinks and players can go to them as required.
Tony
Roar Guru
If play is called to be stopped for injury by a trainer, then it should be a mandatory interchange for that player and they cannot return for 10 minutes. Not a free interchange. I like it. And play can only be stopped by the trainer once he has been on the filed to look at the injured player. While we're at it, let's get the trainers off the field except for these "emergency" medical moments. If the player needs a drink, some encouraging words, or to be reminded of what his job is, let him run off to a designated area off the field to talk to the trainer/coach.