Opinion
I was born and bred not far from Bondi Beach, long enough ago to remember 1966 when my team, Easts, did not win a game all season. I have seen many changes in the game from the tough unlimited tackle battles when players had “real day jobs” to today’s fully professional, much faster encounters.
The increasing incidence of serious head injury has the potential to be a major financial risk to the NRL. Just look at American football and the round-ball game in Europe where massive dollar claims are made by former players for head injury compensation.
Rugby union has taken a strong stand to wipe out head contact and the NRL need to seriously follow suit.
The Roosters know all too well. In 2021 two great club men in Boyd Cordner and Jake Friend were forced into premature retirement because of too many concussions. Then this year the talented Luke Keary was sidelined mid-season for four weeks because of head knocks.
Need more data? ABC’s David Marks reported that in the 2021 season there had been 59 concussion incidents, i.e. one every 1.6 games.
In a 10-year career starting in 1989, Brett Horsnell (Gold Coast Titans, Brisbane Broncos and Parramatta Eels) played 154 first grade games and had a staggering 51 concussions.
October 2021 saw 10 UK players, including international Bobbie Goulding, take legal action against the sport’s administrators for negligence giving rise to their serious medical problems with dementia as a result of head knocks suffered when playing professional rugby league.
In July 2022, Kalyn Ponga, Newcastle Knights’ best player, played his last game of the season because of concussion injury.
Australian captain James Tedesco, rated by many as the world’s best player, was a sore and sorry sight when he needed to be assisted from the field in the finals due to a bad knock to the head.
Something urgently needs to be done before the start of season 2023.
Here are my suggestions.
No third tackler allowed
Often it occurs when play has virtually stopped going forward and the contact is chest height and above. Offenders should be sin-binned when the third tackle is that high.
Each team’s sin bin offences to be judged as one
First occurrence: 10 minutes. Second player offending: 15 minutes. Third player: 20 minutes. You get the drift. For repeat offenders, double demerits. So, if the first offender is the culprit in the third offence they don’t get 20 minutes, but 40 minutes.
Any sin bin stint of 30 minutes or more not fully served by the end of a match is carried over to the start of that player’s next games.
These changes would go a long way to properly protect player welfare and also make games more free-flowing.
What are your thoughts, Roarers?
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