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Bird lambasts 'chargedown king'
By Steve Jancetic
July 05, 2007
NEW South Wales five-eighth Greg Bird has called on the NRL to do more to protect kickers after chargedown king Steve Price left Blues and Sharks halfback Brett Kimmorley with a serious knee injury.
Bird suggested that Price had to change his technique or have the NRL force him to mend his ways.
The young Sharks player watched in horror as Price hurled himself at the legs of Kimmorley in the opening minutes of the final State of Origin match at Suncorp Stadium last night.
Kimmorley, who played on after having his right knee strapped, expects that scans tonight will confirm he has a grade-two medial ligament tear that will sideline him for between four and six weeks.
The incident revived memories of Price's hit on Sharks debutant Tony Caine in round 12 last year. Caine missing the rest of his season after requiring a full knee reconstruction as a result of the impact.
Bird said that officials had to act before the practice of diving at a kicker's knees brought a premature end to a player's career.
"People diving at knee caps isn't in the spirit of the game," Bird said.
"That's twice now it's caused injuries for my team: Noddy, and Tony Caine last year.
"There's no protection there at all. (The kicker is) sort of left stranded on one leg and you hit him in the right spot it could nearly be career threatening.
"I don't know if there's any way they can enforce a rule on that, but you get exactly the same result by making a tackle on him rather than diving at a knee cap.
"I don't know whether (Price) has to change or they have to make a rule to make him change.
"It didn't look good how he did it this time, and it's not just our team. I'm sure there's a lot of other teams that have had injuries out of him doing the same thing as well."
Price is one of the game's best exponents of the chargedown, but the tactic is fraught with danger.
The New Zealand Warriors veteran appeared to turn his back as he tried to pull out of his dive at Kimmorley last night, but he still put much of the force of his bodyweight on Kimmorley's knee.
NRL match review commissioner Greg McCallum said there was a provision to charge players for diving at a kicker's knee, but it covered only players who deliberately dived at the stationary leg of a kicker.
"Quite clearly (Price) did not do that ... it has to be an intentional action and it has to be in the course of diving at the static leg that's there when he's kicking the ball," McCallum said.
"It doesn't cover chargedowns.
"While the action of charging down can be an unintentional act, it certainly wasn't the case of diving at the legs.
"The kicker was moving forward as well."
Sharks and NSW doctor David Givney said the Blues players had gone into the game prepared for Price to target their legs.
"It looked ugly and we knew he was going to do it," Givney said today.
"We talked about it beforehand, watch Price because he'll dive at your legs. They actually talked about it beforehand and it happened. Everyone's a little bit disappointed."
AAP
By Steve Jancetic
July 05, 2007
NEW South Wales five-eighth Greg Bird has called on the NRL to do more to protect kickers after chargedown king Steve Price left Blues and Sharks halfback Brett Kimmorley with a serious knee injury.
Bird suggested that Price had to change his technique or have the NRL force him to mend his ways.
The young Sharks player watched in horror as Price hurled himself at the legs of Kimmorley in the opening minutes of the final State of Origin match at Suncorp Stadium last night.
Kimmorley, who played on after having his right knee strapped, expects that scans tonight will confirm he has a grade-two medial ligament tear that will sideline him for between four and six weeks.
The incident revived memories of Price's hit on Sharks debutant Tony Caine in round 12 last year. Caine missing the rest of his season after requiring a full knee reconstruction as a result of the impact.
Bird said that officials had to act before the practice of diving at a kicker's knees brought a premature end to a player's career.
"People diving at knee caps isn't in the spirit of the game," Bird said.
"That's twice now it's caused injuries for my team: Noddy, and Tony Caine last year.
"There's no protection there at all. (The kicker is) sort of left stranded on one leg and you hit him in the right spot it could nearly be career threatening.
"I don't know if there's any way they can enforce a rule on that, but you get exactly the same result by making a tackle on him rather than diving at a knee cap.
"I don't know whether (Price) has to change or they have to make a rule to make him change.
"It didn't look good how he did it this time, and it's not just our team. I'm sure there's a lot of other teams that have had injuries out of him doing the same thing as well."
Price is one of the game's best exponents of the chargedown, but the tactic is fraught with danger.
The New Zealand Warriors veteran appeared to turn his back as he tried to pull out of his dive at Kimmorley last night, but he still put much of the force of his bodyweight on Kimmorley's knee.
NRL match review commissioner Greg McCallum said there was a provision to charge players for diving at a kicker's knee, but it covered only players who deliberately dived at the stationary leg of a kicker.
"Quite clearly (Price) did not do that ... it has to be an intentional action and it has to be in the course of diving at the static leg that's there when he's kicking the ball," McCallum said.
"It doesn't cover chargedowns.
"While the action of charging down can be an unintentional act, it certainly wasn't the case of diving at the legs.
"The kicker was moving forward as well."
Sharks and NSW doctor David Givney said the Blues players had gone into the game prepared for Price to target their legs.
"It looked ugly and we knew he was going to do it," Givney said today.
"We talked about it beforehand, watch Price because he'll dive at your legs. They actually talked about it beforehand and it happened. Everyone's a little bit disappointed."
AAP
