Alex Mckinnon To Sue

[El Diablo]

Waste of time, perfect bouncer Hughes just missed it. Absolutely nothing illegal about it.

i wonder how it would have been handled if it was the third bouncer bowled in the over

 

[DiegoNT]

A ban on lifting tackles is not only hard to enforce, but also may have unintended side effects.

The reason gang tackles are so frequent is that there are no rewards for an old fashioned legs tackle but also because modern players are bigger, stronger and more skilled, so a lot more goes into stopping them. Tackle low and every player can offload nowdays, go high and they usually keep the legs pumping. It's a team effort to tackle powerful runners. Then there is the all important slowing the ruck. That's why gang tackles are the norm. Almost all tackles require some lifting. A lifting ban is hard to enforce, refs have enough on their plate without having to judge whether someone should be sin binned for a dangerous lifting tackle. Thats why a penalty is sufficient, and the judiciary can work out who's at fault and what punishment is required. To do that on the run will cause huge problems in our game. Thousands of lifting tackles happen every year, injuries are relatively rare and major tragedies like this are once a generation thing.

Sometimes rules designed to do one thing have unintended consequences. No punching has led to more grubby play, speeding up the ruck rules has made it actually more slow and messy. A blanket 3 match ban on any shoulder charge was a disaster of a rule. A rule that has been forgetting is the rule introduced in the early rounds of 2014, the wrapping legs in a gang tackle. In recent years cannonball tackles had become a problem and were rightfully outlawed. But then the nrl went 1 step to far. They banned any player coming in amd wrapping the legs of a player when there was already other defenders in the tackle. This rule was championed by Wayne Bennett mainly because Alex McKinnon had suffered an ankle injury in one of these tackles. What would happen is that 2 blokes would tackle high, but a powerful runner would keep pumping his legs and making metres, so a 3rd man would come in, wrap the legs, get him to ground. This was bizarrely outlawed early in 2014. So what we had was a situation that if 2 bloke had tackled a man high, and he was still pumping his legs a third player couldn't wrap his legs, so his only option was to grab the bloke by the hips/thighs and lift him to stop momentum and get him to ground. Because of a stupid rule brought in to supposedly stop injuries, we saw a rise in lifting gang tackles with tragic results. Not long after the McKinnon accident the wrapping legs penalty has been completely ignored.

The whole thing is a freak accident. 3 players in a lifting tackle, not helped by the rules of the time, and a guy still fighting in the tackle ( i hate the whole he ducked his head trying to get a penalty, i think it was more reflex to avoid face planting).

I think that if we start tampering to much with the lifting rules, it would lead to an increase of wrestling tactics and may make tackles even more dangerous

 

[siv]

So is the real culprit the NRL for introducing the 10m rule

Or Webb Ellis for picking up the ball

 

[DiegoNT]

So is the real culprit the NRL for introducing the 10m rule

Or Webb Ellis for picking up the ball

Does there have to be a culprit?
I think the whole thing was a freak accident
The evolution of tackles
The Evolution of rules
The adjudicating of that game (from memory there was an accusation that the ref had let a number of lifting tackles go from both sides).
The actions of 3 defending players
The actions of the player being tackled.
All have helped create the perfect storm of which there was a tragic outcome.

To pin this all on Jordan Mclean is incredibly tough

 

[LineBall]

Isn't this part of the evolution of the game? Seeing as tackles around the boot laces aren't rewarded everyone has moved to wrestling, 3 man tackles to slow momentum.

I'm with you, love a legal lifted tackle akin to what we saw 'back in the day' driving them into the ground on their backs. Usually one on one.

Happy for lifting to be banned, add it to shoulder charge ban, potential 3+ man tackles ban and there's a huge shift fundamentally in how the game is defended.

How do you defend somebody like kasiano who could carry 4 blokes?
If two can't bring him down he can run forever, or some merkin taps out and another defender chimes in?

Could be interesting actually!

You touch on some important points. In reality - the game had in pretty much correct in the early 80's and the rules the game was played by then. Going back to the 5 metre rule and having only replacements rather than interchange would change things dramatically.

 

[Munted]

Does there have to be a culprit?
I think the whole thing was a freak accident
The evolution of tackles
The Evolution of rules
The adjudicating of that game (from memory there was an accusation that the ref had let a number of lifting tackles go from both sides).
The actions of 3 defending players
The actions of the player being tackled.
All have helped create the perfect storm of which there was a tragic outcome.

To pin this all on Jordan Mclean is incredibly tough

You only need to look at Jules bianchi in F1 to see the perfect storm of circumstances deliver the worst possible outcome.

All we/the game can do is look to further minimise risk but it comes at a cost.
Maybe the spectacle is less exciting, Thems the breaks and the world we live in.

I'd like to think it doesn't change the fabric of the game via vast rule changes... Then again I'm not in Alex's position.

 

[TheFrog]

major tragedies like this are once a generation thing.

They should be able to be affordably insured against then.

I could see a meeting saying if you take this to court, you will no longer will be welcome in nrl hq

What a masterstroke in PR that would be. Not that he'd want to go there.

 

[RL The greatest game]

I dont see him winning. It so hard to sue the nrl. Firstly, the nrl would have known that this would happened which I highly doubt they could have foresaw and a freak accident hardly ever comes to a payout. I just dont want to see the nrl pull out of giving him a job, which I could see happening.hq

"I could see a meeting saying if you take this to court, you will no longer will be welcome in nrl"
Not sure if that would happen, but if he loses the case and has to pay costs he will be up shit creek without a paddle.

 

[El Diablo]

"I could see a meeting saying if you take this to court, you will no longer will be welcome in nrl"
Not sure if that would happen, but if he loses the case and has to pay costs he will be up shit creek without a paddle.

depends if a news organisation is funding it

 

[NrlVader]

Any NRL player that don't take out insurance for themselves is plain stupid and if they get hurt then it's their own fault.

 

[Wizardman]

Any NRL player that don't take out insurance for themselves is plain stupid and if they get hurt then it's their own fault.

What insurance company would touch an nrl player?

 

[NrlVader]

What insurance company would touch an nrl player?

Plenty. There are other jobs in the community much more dangerous eg building, transport industry.

Many in the community have insurance for themselves life, income protection etc.

David Beckham famously insured his kicking leg/feet for hundreds of millions.

 

[OVP]

Plenty. There are other jobs in the community much more dangerous eg building, transport industry.

Many in the community have insurance for themselves life, income protection etc.

David Beckham famously insured his kicking leg/feet for hundreds of millions.

Well I for one feel honoured that you have decided to join our little forum here. You are an expert on criminal justice, mental illness, surgery, psychiatry and psychology, paraplegia, rugby league and now insurance. Please enjoy your stay here and please feel free to comment on everything so that us little plebs on this forum can expand our own knowledge through your good self. Thank you.

 

[Danish]

why?

If lifting is just an instinctual part of trying to tackle someone, and we have 500+ tackles every game, don't you think it would occur much more than it does?

Its a shitty shortcut to bringing a person down when you don't know how to tackle properly

 

[Sydney Knight]

Have you actually attempted to take out an insurance policy on behalf of someone in these high risk occupations? Hardly any insurers cover them and the ones that do will either load up the premiums or put heaps of exclusions on the cover so it may only pay out if you get sick/injured by something unrelated to your dangerous occupation.

Plenty. There are other jobs in the community much more dangerous eg building, transport industry.

Many in the community have insurance for themselves life, income protection etc.

David Beckham famously insured his kicking leg/feet for hundreds of millions.

 

[El Diablo]

What insurance company would touch an nrl player?

QBE do seeing they rejected Watmongs claim http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...ta-eels-anthony-watmough-20160825-gr1gr4.html

 

[Sydney Knight]

That QBE insurance is for the Club as a whole so QBE have the risk spread across the whole squad.

 

[TheFrog]

QBE do seeing they rejected Watmongs claim http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...ta-eels-anthony-watmough-20160825-gr1gr4.html

This covers clubs for remaining player contract salaries where a new injury forces early retirement. Quite different, but still I don't see how the risk of a player suffering total and permanent disability as a result of a single event would be so great that insurance wouldn't touch it.

 

[ed-grimley]

Well I for one feel honoured that you have decided to join our little forum here. You are an expert on criminal justice, mental illness, surgery, psychiatry and psychology, paraplegia, rugby league and now insurance. Please enjoy your stay here and please feel free to comment on everything so that us little plebs on this forum can expand our own knowledge through your good self. Thank you.

Don't forget wife bashing.

 

[NrlVader]

This covers clubs for remaining player contract salaries where a new injury forces early retirement. Quite different, but still I don't see how the risk of a player suffering total and permanent disability as a result of a single event would be so great that insurance wouldn't touch it.

Be a lot less than say getting cancer, incidents of permanent disability in NRL. If you say were insured and got cancer or a heart attack or lose an arm at work and had time off work etc and it was as major incident the payout can be in the millions if you are insured. Recently a friend developed brain cancer but thank fully survived and is in remission, the insurance payout was enough for them to buy a million dollar+ Byron Bay holiday house.