While the NRL marches on with its crackdown on high shots, rugby league great Phil Gould says there's another on-field indiscretion that he's more concerned about; the hip drop.
Across last weekend's round of matches, 14 players were sin binned and three were sent off as a result of the NRL's hard stand on high tackles.
One incident that didn't attract a stint in the sin bin was Dragons lock Josh McGuire's hip drop tackle on Josh Addo-Carr, which caused play to stop for several minutes as the Storm winger required help from club trainers.
Despite only being placed on report for the incident at the time, McGuire was handed a five-week ban for the tackle, which he accepted with an early guilty plea, rather than rolling the dice at the judiciary and risking a seven-game suspension.
Gould says the hip drop tackle – which involves the defender, who's often the second or third man in, holding onto the hips or upper body of the ball carrier before dropping their body weight on the legs of the attacker (McGuire's example below) – needs a greater focus by the NRL.
"When we started seeing the third man in around the legs, and I remember Bill Harrigan was the referees' boss at the time, I said, 'nip it in the bud straight away, I don't like where this is going'," Gould told Wide World of Sports' Six Tackles with Gus podcast.
"I worry a lot more about those types of attacks to the legs – to the legs of kickers, this hip drop motion as we saw on the weekend.
"I made a point of it on the weekend, that the hip drop tackle – I worry more about that than some bloke copping a hit on the chin with a swinging arm.
"I worry much more about that because your legs are your tools of trade."
Gould went on to express how media attention on concussion is taking away the focus from the other blights in the game.
"It (hip drop tackle) puts players out for a long time," he added.
"I'm not discounting, and don't anyone put words in my mouth that I'm discounting the concussion issue. I appreciate it and understand people's concerns. I understand the concern of parents, but a lot of the media comments around this and a lot of the predictions about it are far outracing research and medical science at the moment.
"Those attacks to the legs to undefending players, I've never liked, in any way shape or form.
"Third man into tackles, attacking the legs of kickers when they're trying to kick the ball and in the air, and this hip drop tackle that was disgraceful on the weekend."
For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by clicking here!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.