NRL great PAUL GALLEN will appear on Nine's 100% FOOTY on Monday night, debating rugby league's hottest topics alongside Phil Gould and James Bracey. Gus will go one-on-one for an interview with ARL Commission chairman Peter V'landys. Tune in from 10.35pm AEST, following all the action of Magic Round!
I've got no problem with the NRL trying to stamp out high tackles. No problem at all.
High tackles are bad. They should get players sin-binned and sent-off like we saw in the weekend crackdown, then cited and suspended.
Now, it looks like those suspensions will become even longer than before, as another crackdown measure. Again, no problem.
My problem is the stupid narrative about supposed negative impacts of what happens at NRL level on junior football. Also, the risk of going overboard and cracking down on incidental contact that is part and parcel of the hard, fast game played at the elite level.
Elite rugby league players are role models, don't get me wrong. But seriously, first grade rugby league is not the game your kids play in under-6s, under-7s, under-8s. It is a completely different game.
We've had more than a century of rugby league and only a certain amount of people have been able to play at the top level. A tiny fraction of its participants.
That's why we love the game so much at NRL level and why it's so special. Not everyone can do this. There's only about 400 players per year that have the ability to survive in first grade. This is the best, biggest, quickest and strongest.
You can't forget that and you've got to stick strong with the brand. This is a hard game and it's not for everyone. Only special players are cut out for the NRL. That's why people watch them. It's above and beyond what kids play on the weekend.
So, seriously, we need to stop giving parents and coaches the excuse that what happens in the NRL is a direct reflection on everything to do with all rugby league.
Josh McGuire or someone whacks another first grader in the head during an NRL match and all of a sudden, this is what every kid is going to do in juniors? No. Come on.
Be a parent, be a coach, and teach them the right way to play the game at that level.
Same with swearing. A kid hears a swear word that slips through on TV or over the sideline and all of a sudden, footballers are teaching kids to swear? No. Come on.
Your kids learn swear words at school. Be a parent, be a coach, and teach them differently if that's what you want. Instill your own values.
Let's not be so precious about everything. I really get frustrated about that, especially when it comes to the way footy is played at the elite level.
What examples are NRL players setting for young kids? What impact does the NRL have on whether parents should let their kids play junior rugby league? Honestly, when you're talking about the game itself, they're silly questions. The game at NRL level is not the game in under-9s and 10s. They're completely different.
My kid can't play under-7s because one day he might get whacked in the head and knocked out like players in the NRL? No, he almost certainly won't.
It's a crazy argument, a weak excuse for parents and coaches. Do you really think that because an NRL player head-highs someone that every player in the under-7s is going to start doing head-highs on purpose? No.
It's stupid and it frustrates the hell out of me, to be honest. So does the idea that we risk not having a proper distinction between foul play and incidental contact.
Incidental contact can't become something that gets rubbed out of the game. It just can't. Firstly, it's impossible in an elite contact sport. Secondly, that's where we cross the line and start damaging the fabric of the game.
Don't forget, that while the NRL isn't life and death, they're playing for the proverbial sheep stations in first grade. This is their life and their livelihood. This is their profession, it's what they do and every player is trying to do it to the best of their ability. To play as hard as they can, or they won't be around too long.
With how fast and strong every player is now, there's going to be incidental contact. Things will go wrong where there's no genuine fault involved. That's the reality.
Brad Fittler and I had an argument about this last week and I'm not sure if it came across the wrong way on my part – but I'm not an advocate for being able to tackle blokes high.
I just think there should be a little bit of understanding from the officials of the difference between incidental high contact and just hitting someone in the head.
I saw plenty of examples of both on the weekend in Magic Round.
The Josh Papalii one. Send-off, no problem. Herman Ese'ese. Send-off, no problem. Tyrell Fuimaono's hit on Ryan Papenhuyzen may not have been a send-off in years gone by but I'm fine with that under the new guidelines; he had time to adjust and hit him lower.
The Sitili Tupouniua one. Previously that would have been a penalty, on report, no further action. I've got no problem with that now being 10 minutes in the sin-bin. He had ample time to hit a lower part of the body and still hit the head, so that's fine.
But then there was the incident where James Tedesco fell into the chest of Lachlan Burr. Seriously, what else could Burr have done? Nothing. Tedesco slipped into him and his head struck Burr's chest, not even his shoulder. Teddy jumped straight up, unhurt.
Under the new rules, fine, make it a penalty. But 10 in the sin-bin for that?
They're the ones that people get frustrated about – obvious incidental contact where there's nothing else the player could have done.
Those are penalties at most. Maybe you end up with a low-grade charge from the match review committee. They can't be sin-bins. That's just too harsh, 10 minutes in the bin for incidental contact that's simply part of our game.
Then there's the Josh McGuire one on Sunday, just eight minutes into the game. That's a penalty, sure, where the first contact is with the ball and his arm bounces up; but because it's Josh McGuire and he's got that reputation where people think he's a grub, he gets sin-binned. Was that worth 10 minutes? I don't think so.
Then there's that Liam Martin incident, where he was penalised for striking Tanah Boyd with his forearm, despite the initial contact being with the chest before sliding up under the chin. Seriously, that contact is just part and parcel of the game, yet the Panthers were robbed of a great try when the Bunker went back to review it.
Martin just had his bumpers up; that's what they call using the forearms these day. They don't lead with their elbows, they get their arms and forearms up to try and either knock the defender off, or get a quick play-the-ball.
That was incidental contact. It's been part of our game forever and should always be. I could not understand that Martin incident being called back and penalised.
What I also had a problem with was instances where the on-field officials, a referee and two touch judges, didn't pick up a relatively minor bit of play yet the Bunker made them stop the game to go back and penalise something.
On the opening night of Magic Round, the touch judge was probably 10 metres away from an incident involving Tevita Pangai Jr, the referee maybe 15 metres. No one saw anything, the tackled player didn't even complain, we went a whole set of six … yet then went back and penalised him.
We can't be having that. He wasn't sin-binned, so it clearly wasn't a major incident. Moments like that, surely the Bunker shouldn't be stopping the game. That should only happen where something serious has been blatantly missed and the match review committee can pick up the other stuff after the game if necessary.
You can't continually stop the game and ruin the experience for the fans to go back and blow nit-picking penalties.
Putting decisions down to the discretion of the Bunker is something I don't like. We've already seen consistency problems with that this season, notably on block plays.
Look at the Benji Marshall one a few weeks ago against the Raiders; Benji made no attempt to make that tackle, no attempt at all. One video referee might rule that way and give it as a try, yet the next time a different video ref decides that the lead runner shouldn't have been in the line, no try.
It needs to be more black and white, and I think it's going to need to be that way with high tackles. Certain video referees are going to see certain tackles as a sin-bin or send-off, where others won't; you end up with a discrepancy and everyone – the players, coaches and the fans – just get frustrated.
Look, it's the first weekend of it and there's teething issues. I understand that. There's going to be that period of time where the NRL are evaluating what's been done and how to get it right. It's going to be like this for a few more weeks, I think.
The bigger picture to all this is the NRL's worry about the legalities of concussion. The potential for class action lawsuits.
I still don't think anyone goes into their career thinking they're going to have concussion issues. I don't think it's really thought about at all among young players.
I'm almost 40 and I'm still boxing, so I don't know what I'm going to be like. I doubt teenage players think too much about having head injury problems later in life.
Perhaps by the time guys become consistent first graders now, they'll be well aware of the risks. Certainly, they're aware that things can go wrong when you're playing at the top level of the game, be it head injuries or other physical damage.
Who knows – perhaps we reach the point where concussion risks are plainly spelt out in NRL contracts and players have to legally accept that risk, if they want to play and earn a living as an elite footballer. In 20 years' time, who knows.
But I said it in this column previously: there's been 113 years of rugby league, so where are all these blokes who are just painting ducks on the wall? We've had thousands of first grade players, so where are the masses with long-term concussion problems?
There's some, no doubt, who are struggling with issues. I'm not trying to take away from the extreme seriousness of concussion, or the value in cracking down on head contact.
But I think there needs to be some perspective and we need to be mindful of keeping intact the hard, tough, exciting game we all love.
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