{"id":495044,"date":"2026-03-12T19:16:47","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:16:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=495044"},"modified":"2026-03-12T22:22:51","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T22:22:51","slug":"leave-it-alone-joey-fumes-over-rugby-style-crackdown-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=495044","title":{"rendered":"'Leave it alone': Joey fumes over rugby-style crackdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andrew Johns<\/a> has urged NRL bosses to leave the game alone amid another pending crackdown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Nine's Danny Weidler revealed coaches had been put on notice after round one \ufeffwith several incidents pinpointed around certain laws.<\/p>\n

Those laws were disrupters, rucks, contact on kickers, contact after the pass, roll balls, baulking, not clearing the ruck, collisions, takeouts, escorts and player communication.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> Iconic NRL moment going to waste over stubborn stance<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\ufeffREAD MORE:<\/strong> Legends praise young Eel as Broncos stunned in upset<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/strong> AFL star in hot water as Blues hang on for narrow victory\ufeff<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps the best reaction to the post was from Bulldogs boss Phil Gould who responded with a gif of a shocked Kramer from Seinfeld<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\ufeffJohns, who said last season was the "best year of footy I've seen", hopes the NRL doesn't take the contest out of the game.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

"Just leave it alone … every play the ball there's a contest, every play the ball you can pick up a six to go if you wanted to," he said on Wide World of Sports' Immortal Behaviour<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

"Just let the game flow, let the game go, don't over-officiate it. People in rugby league, we mock rugby union for how over-officiated it is, well we're getting that way.<\/p>\n

Watch the 2026 NRL season live and free on Nine and<\/strong><\/em> 9Now<\/strong><\/em><\/a>.\ufeff<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

"It's after round one, just leave it. Just let it go, last year was the best we've seen.<\/p>\n

"On the weekend there was double the amount of six agains, you have to realise the six agains, what they do for the momentum to the game.<\/p>\n

"Six agains back-to-back destroys \ufeffthe opposition's middle, it creates so much fatigue."<\/p>\n

\"Joey:\u00a0'Broncos\u00a0saving\u00a0themselves\u00a0for\u00a0attack'\"<\/p>\n

The league Immortal also pointed out the rules around the contact on kickers, describing it as his "bug bear".<\/p>\n

Johns had originally been outspoken about protecting halfbacks after a number of off-the-ball hits but insists it's now reached a limit.<\/p>\n

"The halfbacks are overly protected now, it's gone way too far," he said.<\/p>\n

"Ten years ago, when they were getting smashed in the back, I was the one crying out 'this is BS, you've got to stop it', but now it's gone too far."<\/p>\n

The former Knights, NSW and Australian halfback did defend the referees saying "they have such a tough job".\ufeff<\/p>\n

"Every play the ball is a contest and every play the ball the defenders are trying to cheat," he said.<\/p>\n

\"Johns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Andrew Johns has urged NRL bosses to leave the game alone amid another pending crackdown. On Wednesday, Nine's Danny Weidler revealed coaches had been put […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":495047,"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\/495044"}],"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=495044"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495044\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495055,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/495044\/revisions\/495055"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/495047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=495044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=495044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=495044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}