Dave Smith is the greatest administrator in RL history.

[Stormwarrior]

Punching in a game has always been wrong and a penalty or a 10min sit down has been ok. Where they went wrong I believe is Anderson should of just told the referees to bin any players that throw punches and not adjust the rules to make it law. That was there mistake. If gallen/Merrin/hodges got binned like they should of without the law change would we be so annoyed at the current predicament? ... I don't think so!

 

[Stormwarrior]

Maybe by making fighting also fall under the "bring the game into disrepute" fine system could also work. Maybe referees cracking down on major niggling tactics could also stop players from punching! Just a couple of thoughts

 

[Spot On]

Maybe by making fighting also fall under the "bring the game into disrepute" fine system could also work. Maybe referees cracking down on major niggling tactics could also stop players from punching! Just a couple of thoughts

Good luck with that.

Canterbury will lose their captain and their 5/8 the first week of the crackdown.

 

[Garbler]

I would like to add another thought to your points Stormwarrior.

What if Gallen had apologised after the game instead of being an arrogant, defiant twat?

Gallen, the lowest, grubbiest player of today's players forced D. Smith's hand. We have Gallen to thank for the crack down. Violence was a privilege offered to SOO players. Only takes one bad apple to ruin it for everyone.

 

[Spot On]

Nate Myles using his head as a torpedo (repeatedly) to attempt to knock Robbie Farah out last series isn't a grub act?

 

[BunniesMan]

Okaaaayy, so now you are in favour of a one week suspension for those involved in punch ups/ brawls etc???? You were arguing that the penalty for fighting would have to now increase to stop players from throwing one. So where do you stand now? Is it that you realise Dave Smith can't in fact single handedly stop fist fights in league? That they will always be part of the game?? For the record, how many weeks suspension should a player receive for throwing a punch?

The other question you were asked is how are players, in 10 to 20 years time, going to become mentally handicapped as you put it?

Automatic sinbin + automatic 4 week suspension would be ideal.

Players will be handicapped by brain damage.

 

[Garbler]

Nate Myles using his head as a torpedo (repeatedly) to attempt to knock Robbie Farah out last series isn't a grub act?

Got nothing to do with Gallen being a grub, and f%cking SOO up for everyone. That one is on Gallen for being a sore bloody loser, cheap shot merchant & king of the brain snap.

While I'm not even going to bother defending Myles as I don't think it changes sh!t, but consider this from a former NSW assistant coach and player John Cartwright:

''Nate's a very hard player but also very fair. There's no swinging arms or cheap shots with him,'' he said.

''Technically he's a perfect defender. We get carried away with wrestling, holding up but Nate tackles like they did 20 years ago.

''He leads with his head and that's the way you were taught when I was a kid. Not many guys can go out there and do it.''

''If we try to take all collisions out of the game we'll end up playing Oztag.''

 

[Spot On]

Automatic sinbin + automatic 4 week suspension would be ideal.

Players will be handicapped by brain damage.

Excellent. So if the above was implemented and Sammy B lost the plot and threw one in R26 you wouldn't whinge about him missing the final series and a GF.

How are these players suffering this brain damage you speak of BM?

 

[Bengal]

I read it. Emotional and archaic stuff. Outdated and illogical.

Phil Gould painted a picture of his background, he played League in a different era, he loved it, he would do it again, but he is not (and was at pains to point out) advocating a return to such times. That would indeed be ?outdated?.

He has alluded to the fact that despite these rough and tumble, often violent experiences he has turned out an arguably well adjusted member of society - a non-violent father of three. The prime reason for this being his dad and mum ? the only role models he ever needed. Right here is the crux of his story and the centerpiece of this whole problem ? the ?influence? of League (or any form of entertainment for that matter) on children and how much weight they really should be given relative to the influence parents exert over their offspring.

From here, it?s a matter of picking a side, one either believes children are easily influenced or one believes that parents determine just how easily influenced children will be. They?re the options. And if one believes in the former then why haven?t other violent, dangerous and arguably as influential pursuits received similar treatment as League Phil queries. A "logical" point to raise I would have thought.

Of course the very nature of the ?professional? game is at odds with the direction the current administration are working towards ? a direction based on an under-scrutinized belief that threatens to turn this game into a ?claytons? version of itself ? a contact sport without a lot of contact! And just how appealing will such a game be in the future especially given the propensity of this current admin to alter the game to appease outside interests is the final point Phil ponders.

My synopsis of Phil's views. Its easy to critique but criticism without justification is meaningless.

 

[Bengal]

Your completely missing the point. You cannot separate the messenger from the message when it is an opinion piece, it's someone's opinion it belongs to them. They own it. They expressed it. I'm happy for you that you so identified with his message, as self interested and conflicting as it was

Incorrect.

Good stuff I dont think we needed verification on the factual part? Also pretty sure your commentary on it means much much less than every club doctor holding the same position on the issue. But sorry I forgot your informed by the great Gus Gould! You must be right to completely neglect what the experts in their field say....

The NRL Doctors agreed on an issue, that is indeed a fact. Their agreement was based on "opinion" and that is a fact also as evidenced by other medical professionals holding differing 'opinions' to them. In other words, the "facts" in this whole argument mean nothing and that is the verification this point needed.

Thought it bout it. Nah. think Ill do what I like actually. Especially when I'm bestowing such wonderful insight to you all

Opinions are the lifeblood of Internet forums. They are little more than a viewpoint someone wishes to express, a message, thus making them a messenger. How does one separate the message from the messenger, simple - just concentrate on the message, on the words and ignore who is expressing them. Such behavior - playing the ball rather than the man is part and parcel of message board land also.

 

[Spot On]

Got nothing to do with Gallen being a grub, and f%cking SOO up for everyone. That one is on Gallen for being a sore bloody loser, cheap shot merchant & king of the brain snap.

While I'm not even going to bother defending Myles as I don't think it changes sh!t, but consider this from a former NSW assistant coach and player John Cartwright:

NSW won Game 1 mate.

Does the tackling style Carty talks about include aiming for the head??? He certainly was using his "perfect" style to hit above the neck mate. Robbie's head can attest to that. I can cop Cartwright defending one of his players but he's the first one to have a whinge when the shoe is on the other foot. Quotes from Carty after the Knights game in R7.

"Him (O'Dwyer) and Harro both got hit and got up holding their heads," he said.

"I don't know what happened in the tackles. I'll have to have a look at it.

"Both were groggy after the tackles and those were the tackles they got injured in.

"They look at them every week so I daresay they will (review) them. They didn't replay them a lot at the ground but both those boys don't lie down."



Hmmm, guess what goes around, comes around hey!

 

[taipan]

Tempers flare at times,a player goes the whole hog ,with his fists.
10 in the bin ,and a meeting with the judiciary.The severity of the altercation will decide his eventual layoff.
Meanwhile clubs will get the jack of losing players ,due to brain explosions.

Now we get dumb comments suggested, from the likes of Cat's Eye(Manly) who wants to get back at Allgood.He obviously wants another stint on the sideline.

If the refs ATT had balls,they would have binned Gallen for 10,put him on report,and the whole issue would have received some sensibility.Merrin was a bigger idiot,because he ignored warnings.

I watched the Souths Warriors game,last sunday ,left Origin 1 and 2 for dead.As tough as ,and not a punch thrown.Message there somewhere?

 

[Garbler]

Incorrect.

Opinions are the lifeblood of Internet forums. They are little more than a viewpoint someone wishes to express, a message, thus making them a messenger. How does one separate the message from the messenger, simple - just concentrate on the message, on the words and ignore who is expressing them. Such behavior - playing the ball rather than the man is part and parcel of message board land also.

I think you know your being overly pedantic.

Gus told us a lot about himself in his article - he's age, he's upbringing, the relationships between family members. To try and cleanly remove any trace of him from a response to the article is missing the very point of the article itself. He is clearly trying to make sense of the world through his own upbringing and life experiences; all power to him. It makes for a fascinating read and it helps us understand why he struggles with certain ideologies.

But to then praise the article and claim all responses have to be on the legitimacy of the themes/agenda set forth by Mr Gould - your missing the value of critical thinking - of questioning why he even choose the themes he did in the first place. There is no harm in questioning, why do you feel threatened that I should question Mr Gould?

To be honest, I shouldn't have been so dismissive of the article, the candour of the piece is refreshing, but Bengal you need to learn to appreciate context. Gus gives us a lot of it in he's article and it would be wasteful to throw it away.

 

[Perth Red]

Yes. Every single nrl club doctor all gave their permission to your anonymous player to stay on the field.

They all left their respective clubs and flew to the anonymous game where they all sat huddled together just in case a decision by all of them at once would need to be made. And then it happened. A player was concussed; someone (who?) tried to take him off but he wanted to stay on the field so badly because he didn't want to let his anonymous team mates and his anonymous coach down. So not knowing what to do they turned to all 16 club doctors who were already conveniently huddled together in the crowd! After little deliberation, because the doctors were so incompetent they had never heard of evidence based practices, they unanimously allowed the anonymous player to stay on the field. The 16 club doctors felt they had made the right decision, but little did they know, eventually a member of a forum somewhere, sometime will bring up this example to refute anything they ever decide as a group again.

And that is how it happened.

If the telegraph reported it so I'm sure you'd be quoting it as fact.

 

[Perth Red]

Automatic sinbin + automatic 4 week suspension would be ideal.

Players will be handicapped by brain damage.

So can you name one single player out of the hundreds that played 10-20 years ago that are today suffering brain damage from playing back then? There is no evidence a legal shoulder charge causes any more long term damage than a hard straight on tackle. Why do you think the NFL has not banned shoulder charge tackles???

 

[BunniesMan]

20 years ago the game was not as fast, the players were not as fit and most importantly they were not as big.

They couldn't do as much damage as often as they do now.

 

[Perth Red]

Bollox, in the 80's & 90's we had plenty of 110kg forwards and they had to cope with a lot more elbows, punches and various other hits to the head. And yet here we are 20 years later with not one single, yes that is right not one, ex player with an acquired brain injury from their playing days. There is ZERO evidence or incidence of legal shoulder charges causing long term brain injury.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

So can you name one single player out of the hundreds that played 10-20 years ago that are today suffering brain damage from playing back then? There is no evidence a legal shoulder charge causes any more long term damage than a hard straight on tackle. Why do you think the NFL has not banned shoulder charge tackles???

But any you say "legal shoulder charge". The thing about a shoulder charge is that a shoulder charger starts high and keeps going up, every single time.

Look at any of those nostalgic shoulder charge compilations on you tube and and look at all of the legal hits. i promise that 9 out of ten will hit the guy in the chin.

Then look at the illegal hits an try to see the difference between the two. the only difference is that the illegal hit made contact a fraction of a second later, when his shoulder is 3 inches higher.

That is why they got rid of the shoulder charge. Because unlike a regular tackle, every single shoulder charge has the potential to make contact with the head. It is a matter of less than a second and neither player has any say in whether it makes contact with the chest or head. It is not a science, it just comes down to chance of the timing. That is why they got rid of it.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

Bollox, in the 80's & 90's we had plenty of 110kg forwards and they had to cope with a lot more elbows, punches and various other hits to the head. And yet here we are 20 years later with not one single, yes that is right not one, ex player with an acquired brain injury from their playing days. There is ZERO evidence or incidence of legal shoulder charges causing long term brain injury.

There may be no instances of player brain damage right now (debatable, i bet there are some that are undiagnosed. it is essentially alzheimer's syndrom).

BUT you have to consider the science. It has been shown that its not just the major brain trauma (confusion, black out) that cause problems. The minor repetitive trauma (head knocks) add up over a lifetime to bring on the same early onset alzheimer's.

 

[chrisD]

Oh gawd you can't be serious? Your now confusing a handful of LU users with the great majority of NRL fans and players.

Perhaps don't spend so much time on this forum? There is a world out there...

lol, can you provide any instance of the majority of NRL fans supporting the shoulder charge ban?

Even the shoulder charge ban cheerleaders DT couldn't weasel a fan poll with anything but an overwhelming majority of fans in opposition.

Come on, anything. gawd... lol what a f**kwit you are.