Rugby league fans love talking about disciplinary processes. The Tuesday night at Driver Ave is our weekly instalment, a new case to try in the courts. It’s 12 Angry Men, except there’s 13 of them.
This week has proven a little more My Cousin Vinny, however. It’s been a bit of a farce in league legal circles.
If you haven’t noticed this, it’s because it’s been playing out on the other side of the world for the most part, though that isn’t to say it won’t also happen here. It already is.
England need every player they can get for their opening match of the 2021 World Cup against Samoa and have been pulling every string to get their bodies on deck.
Morgan Knowles will be going head to head with Victor Radley for the 13 jumper for England, and as precursor to that battle, decided to ape his competitor by getting himself hauled in front of the Match Review Panel for the most obvious chicken wing this side of Colonel Sanders.
He was found guilty, then appealed, lost the appeal, then got a second appeal, which he won and will now play this weekend’s Grand Final and – assuming he doesn’t try some egregious foul play in that game – for England against Samoa.
But wait, there’s more. John Bateman, who you will undoubtedly remember, is a very good player. He’s the captain of England. Certainly, you might think, he’s good enough to play for England and not their A side, England Knights and at 28, probably a little old too.
Luckily for Johnny B, however, the Knights have a game against France B, so he‘s been named in their squad in order to knock a game off the three-match suspension he received for ironing out Aidan Sezer in Wigan’s semi-final defeat to Leeds.
Throw in England’s warm-up against Fiji on October 7th and suddenly you’re down to one. England Knights are scheduled to play Scotland on October 8th, too, though even the powers that be at the RFL seem to think that it is a stretch too far for Bateman to be in two England squads at once.
“It’s a bullshit question,” to quote eminent legal mind Mona Lisa Vito, as played by Marisa Tomei.
Luckily for Tom Burgess, he doesn’t have to worry about such things. He picked up a two-game ban for his high shot on James Tedesco and will be back for the NRL Grand Final, if Souths make it. Had they lost last week, he might well have been named in that Knights squad too.
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves will be wishing there was an Aotearoa Maori game, or a Junior Kiwis fixture requiring an older, balder, fatter junior because as it stands, he’ll miss the Kiwis’ opening two games after his ban for a head slam on Burgess in the Roosters’ finals loss two weeks ago.
He’ll get to serve one of his games against Leeds, however, in a game that will totally not be a mess around and definitely will be a real game despite, y’know, being one of the great international sides of the world versus a club team that played a Grand Final ten days before and hasn’t been on Mad Monday at all, not a drop.
Extra feels go out to Lindsay Collins. He missed the Roosters’ finals campaign altogether, rubbed out for a hip drop tackle in Round 24 of the regular season.
He can count this Sunday’s PM XIII game against his suspension even though the ARLC didn’t go to the lengths of actually naming him in the squad and taking up someone else’s roster spot. Collins, if selected for the World Cup, will only be out for the Kangaroos’ opener with Fiji.
Double extra feels remain available to be doled out for any of the four sides who happen to have one of their players suspended this weekend.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
If, say, Mitchell Moses was to get a ban, it could potentially force Lebanon to lose their best player for something that happened in a game that doesn’t concern them, that said best player was only competing in because a non-Lebanon team did well. Adam Doueihi, their second-best player, doesn’t have such concerns.
See also Lachlan Ilias, Greece’s best player, Val Holmes, should he choose the Cook Islands, or Jason Taumalolo, the captain of Tonga, or any of the six Penrith Panthers who will form almost the entire Samoa backline.
The eminent rugby league historian, Tony Collins, has oft remarked that rugby league never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. For fans in the UK, who have waited since 2013 for a World Cup on home soil and a chance to see the NRL’s finest in action, they could have that taken away from them.
For players, who train and play all year in the hope of representing their nations at the sport’s showpiece event, they could also have it taken away from them.
For clubs, they win: their players serve bans elsewhere with no negative effects at all.
The most annoying thing is quite how avoidable this all is. With Taylan May’s recent non-suspension – alright suspension suspended to next year – it was justified by saying that it was unfair on Penrith fans.
I contend that these rules, as they stand, are unfair on all rugby league fans, especially those who bought World Cup tickets in the hope of seeing the best of the best.
There’s a simple fix too. Just ban players for games in the competition in which they committed the offence. If you were wearing a Roosters jersey when you did the deed, you serve an NRL suspension.
It’s how football works. If Aaron Mooy is sent off for Celtic, he doesn’t miss any Socceroos games. It’s maddeningly simple, and avoids the farce we’ve seen this week.
The clock, as Ms Vito said, is ticking, ticking, ticking. But they could change it now, if they wanted to, and nobody would object.
Choppy Zezers
Roar Rookie
I think it used to be pretty hard to snot a player but with the HIA nowadays a well timed coat-hanger could mean Munster can't return to the game. And if it did happen he would probably just get put on report anyway. So in summary: Just snot Cam Munster or any Storm player, really
Choppy Zezers
Roar Rookie
What about any and all suspensions can be covered with a $2000 fine payable at any time in the future.
KenW
Roar Rookie
NRL is wildly more important to the career and earning potential of a player than international honours are. A true statement in general terms but doesn't hold up here. If he serves this suspension in the NRL he gets paid regardless and misses a handful of early season games. Long forgotten by the time anything important rolls around. If he serves it in rep footy, then he actually does lose match payments (relatively small as they may be) and ends his representative career to boot. The argument that he might prefer to be in Bali than playing rep footy is irrelevant - if that was his preference he could be doing that already.
Homer Nixon
Guest
Yes. NRL is wildly more important to the career and earning potential of a player than international honours are. It's NRL form that gets you selected for origins and internationals etc. His club would be fuming. They pay him good money to win premierships. NZRL pay peanuts to play a world cup every 4 years, and meaningless friendlies in between. Instead of playing a genuinely pointless end of season game against England in the freezing cold, watched by a live audience of a few thousand and a TV audience of about 0, for about $5000 in match payments, he's off with the boys getting sloshed in Bali. I guarantee I know which one he would prefer.
KenW
Roar Rookie
You've mentioned JWH. Let's say he weighs it up and says 'I'm going to iron out Munster here'. He gets sent off and banned for 4 games - that ends up being 18months of the NZ international calendar, he's never picked again, and so his last act in a NZ jersey is being sent off. Is that truly less of a punishment than missing the first 4 rounds of next year's NRL, where he's being paid anyway?
KenW
Roar Rookie
Agreed with Mike that the specific scenario is unlikely. But I'd also point out that a very similar general scenario happens often. Whenever a player is leaving the sport, whether heading for another code or retiring outright, they play a final game at some point. In that game there is no suspension that can be practically imposed on them. Yet we don't see a spate of retiring players taking players heads-off - I suspect most don't want their final game ended with a send-off.
Homer Nixon
Guest
Screw whether the fans miss out. The player needs to take personal responsibility for their actions. Integrity trumps ticket sales. If it's a 4 game suspension, they miss the next 4 games they are scheduled to play. Simple. A suspension only works when the player suffers for being suspended. The ANZAC test next year would be barbaric in violence if the players knew that a suspension would apply only to international matches and not the NRL. It's astonishing the author doesn't recognise that.
Dusty10
Roar Rookie
The answer could actually be placed entirely in the hands if the judiciary. Currently we all accept that they determine guilt and severity of punishment, if any. Why not have the judiciary also determine which games the player must sit out, with a set of common-sense guidelines to assist in identifying those games? In the case of Bateman, for example, nobody would expect him to line up for England A. That is NOT a game that can be 'used' towards his ban. So, the judiciary says "you will sit out the next x number of premiership games and x world cup games", or whatever the most relevant games are. The club can't decide, because they clearly rort the current system. Done.
Dumbo
Roar Rookie
So, what do you suggest, Homer ? (Genuine question, not a snide remark.)
Landz84
Roar Rookie
I wish Rob Holding was not named in any Arsenal team to be honest :)
Landz84
Roar Rookie
Haha I wish Rob Holding wasn't named in any arsenal team to be honest :)
Tim J
Roar Rookie
C’mon Samoa and give it to the Poms, cut the roses and watch the petals fly everywhere.
Tony Harper
Editor
Rob Holding was a threat to the safety of my TV screen when he got sucked into a red card against Sp*rs last season though...
Homer Nixon
Guest
I contend that these rules, as they stand, are unfair on all rugby league fans, especially those who bought World Cup tickets in the hope of seeing the best of the best. The best of the best would be able to avoid suspendable activities. Players must take consequence for their actions. This article excuses it.
Homer Nixon
Guest
Rob Holding isn't a threat to the safety of others though. Red cards in football are issued (mainly, but not exclusively of course) for cynical play. Dangerous acts in football are far, far, rarer.
Homer Nixon
Guest
This is anarchical. You can have players go absolute troppo then in the world cup knowing that any suspension would be in (largely irrelevant) future representative matches instead of club matches. Under your rule, what would stop JWH in the final using the swinging arm on an opponent knowing that - at worst - he's going to miss a possible Anzac test and and maybe some post season internationals, instead of a large swathe of NRL matches? Match payments for Kiwis are peanuts. JWH would rather the holiday in Bali. Your constant comparisons with football are apples and oranges. Footballers when they get a red card don't typically cause injuries to others. You get a red card generally for cynical play (such as a slide tackle on the last man, or handball in the box etc), and the rare bit of dangerous play mid-pitch. Rugby league players when they get sent off, are sent off because they've done something thuggishly violent, or when they get 4-5 weeks it's because they've whacked someone's head, hard. They are suspended because they are deemed unsafe and dangerous to be playing.
SPM
Roar Rookie
Why not it’s rep footy is it not? Why should the clubs have to cop it as the ones who put all the effort into developing and growing these players as well as paying ten large sums of money to play for the club? They already carry the burden if these guys are injured and then require surgery or rehab as well as missing club games.
Noel
Roar Rookie
So, the flip side of that being, if you cop a suspension playing an international, that suspension should be served by sitting out Origin if Origin is the next rep game on the calendar.
SPM
Roar Rookie
No contract or retiring the massive fines ie players salary for that season divided by games equals then minus 80% or something to that effect
Mike Meehall Wood
Editor
I would expect the chances of someone getting picked for Australia without a contract and then ditching the sport entirely are vanishingly small. Lodge played Brisbane second grade union this year and, by all accounts, wasn't great even at that level. FWIW, Super League honours NRL suspensions (see Ben Barba) and both codes have shown that they can honour suspensions in the past (mostly drug bans) so in the very small chance of this occurring, things can generally be worked out. Wider point would be that this current iteration of the rules negatively impacts a lot of people whereas it's quite hard to imagine the example you give being anything other than a one-off.