Sin binning shambles

[Different kind of Rabbit]

Yes a team yesterday conceeds 9 penalties in a row and no sin bin for repeat infringements

No surprises who that team was though...

The more concerning thing from that game was that on at least two occasions, a couple of props took hit ups using their forearm as a bumper bar... You can't ram your forearm into the throat of a tackler. This is known to be against the rules. I believe Sam Burgess copped a suspension over this either last year or the year before and yet Melbourne do it twice in one match and not a word is said.

 

[Someguy]

Souths had 2 players charged, that were not even deemed as penalties on the field vs Manly.

Something is badly wrong in the whole system.

That’s because penalising Souths is not the done thing. Looked at all the burgees initiated skirmishes this season, penalty Souths!

 

[Different kind of Rabbit]

That’s because penalising Souths is not the done thing. Looked at all the burgees initiated skirmishes this season, penalty Souths!

We've been on the end of a lot of one sided penalty counts... That's for sure.

In saying that, I'd much prefer that opposition teams stopped laying all over our ruck and giving us these penalties because Damian Cook is the most potent attacking dummy half in the comp and if we actually get to play some free flowing rugby league for a change, we will kill it.

Our attack is severely stifled by all these penalties we receive. It's killing us.

 

[Vic Mackey]

Luke Garner pleading not guilty. Very interesting test case this one

 

[Springs09]

These binnings for "late hits" on playmakers are the ones that are killing me at the moment. Not only are they ridiculously over the top but they also clearly show that whoever is driving this crackdown at the moment has zero understanding of the mechanics of defense and has obviously never played the game.

The Garner hit was a prime example of my point... Garner was fully committed to the tackle. That's 110 kgs of forward moving at pace... He can't just stop on a dime. It's not his fault that the player he tackled decided to turn his back and at that point, Garner isn't necessarily looking straight at him anyway. He's turning his head to one side preparing to make the tackle. So.. His view of the tackled player is obstructed and to make matters worse, the player being tackled has turned his back so Garner has zero chance of seeing when the ball has been released. Still... Garner probably senses that a few people have been binned for hitting playmakers with their backs turned and he makes every effort to pull out. He puts his chest out as a bumper and applies the brakes but by that stage, its too late. Momentum does what momentum does and he levels Lewis, basically with a chest bump a fraction of a second after the ball is passed. I mean, the ball is still in the air ffs.

Anyone who has played a bit of footy and made a few tackles knows that Luke Garner did everything he could... Probably even beyond what you would expect a player in that situation to even be able to do, to pull out of that tackle and yet he still ended up in the bin.

It was an outrageously stupid decision and a clear blight on that game.

It's the whinging that's the problem. Players and media whinged non-stop about hits on playmakers earlier in the year. The whinging got to the point where they were saying as soon as they pass the ball their body is relaxed and any hit can do damage and blah blah blah. And so it's led to this shit.

As a defender you have to commit to the tackle, there's every chance a player could dummy and go through if you don't. You don't go overboard and whack a player 2 seconds after he's passed it, but when you are as close as Garner was you have to commit to the tackle.

If I was a playmaker in the NRL I'd absolutely be 'turning' my back and then dummying, since I'd know any inside defenders will have to back off or be put in the sin bin.

And playmakers - keep your damn defences up. It's rugby league, you expect to get hit.