{"id":291336,"date":"2023-04-30T03:37:51","date_gmt":"2023-04-30T03:37:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=291336"},"modified":"2023-04-30T04:58:49","modified_gmt":"2023-04-30T04:58:49","slug":"boss-bristles-at-ridiculous-nrl-accusation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=291336","title":{"rendered":"Boss bristles at 'ridiculous' NRL accusation"},"content":{"rendered":"

N\ufeffRL<\/a> boss Andrew Abdo<\/a> has defended the game amid accusations it is becoming too soft.<\/p>\n

Abdo appeared on Nine's Sunday Footy Show, where league legend Billy Slater<\/a> raised concerns about a number of incidents in round, specifically where defenders have been penalised for contact on a kicker.<\/p>\n

"The match officials are getting a little bit jumpy because of all this talk about player safety… but the fabric of the game is getting damaged," Slater said.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Chilling realisation after 'unthinkable' rocked sport<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Tigers clinch upset of the season as Brooks dazzles<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Fuming Verstappen delivers foul-mouthed spray at rival<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"You can hardly touch a kicker now when they kick the football.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

Abdo responded with a passionate defence of the officials and the league.<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

"I have a strong answer for that, and that is I don't think the match officials are getting jumpy," Abdo said.<\/p>\n

"They are having to adjudicate in real time… in a game that is becoming faster and faster. That is why we have the Bunker official.<\/p>\n

"You are never going to get it perfect, because there are humans involved in this.<\/p>\n

Stream the NRL premiership 2023 live and free on <\/strong>9Now<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

"In terms of the balance of getting player safety right, I don't think the game is being jumpy, I think from time to time you're going to make decisions that you might not get right.<\/p>\n

"It's about getting the balance right, it's about execution, and it's about consistency.<\/p>\n

\"Abdo<\/p>\n

"It is an entertaining contact sport, it will always be that, but the talk of us getting soft I think is ridiculous.<\/p>\n

"If you watch a rugby league game live or on television, there is nothing soft about our game.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

League legend Andrew Johns then offered a left-field solution to help curb dangerous tackles in the game.<\/p>\n

Johns wants to see wrestling coaches – which are employed by clubs to help get a defensive advantage – banned under the NRL's football department salary cap rules.<\/p>\n

"That's an absolute possiblity for the Commission, and we absolutely will consider that," Abdo said.<\/p>\n

"That is an option for us.\ufeff"<\/p>\n

For a daily dose of the best of the breaking news and exclusive content from Wide World of Sports, subscribe to our newsletter by<\/strong><\/em> clicking here<\/strong><\/em><\/a>!<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

N\ufeffRL boss Andrew Abdo has defended the game amid accusations it is becoming too soft. Abdo appeared on Nine's Sunday Footy Show, where league legend […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":291338,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291336"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=291336"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291341,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291336\/revisions\/291341"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/291338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=291336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=291336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=291336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}