Well…. As a Sharks fan, obviously I’m pleased the NRL have done this early in the week to remove the distraction (though knowing how fragile Nicho is mentally, that’s probably him cooked now anyway - it’s not like he handles big games and pressure well anyway).
Even though I think they’ve done the right thing in realising they’d got it wrong and changing, the way they’ve ended up at this decision is terrible. And I have to say, if it were a Rooster, Panther, Bronco or Bulldog player who’d been downgraded like this, I’d be blowing up delux, regardless of whether the end result was the right one or not. Really dangerous precedent, and just shows the shitshow that will happen when injury is a key deciding factor of the charge. The Bulldogs have 100% done the right thing, but I dare say, if we’d been playing the Bulldogs this week again in the finals, they’d maybe not have been so forthcoming with the injury update. It’s fraught with danger and leads to innuendo about bias.
Finally, as a rugby league fan, I don’t believe we should be banning players for these types of tackle - it’s ridiculous. Can’t tackle too high in case the player slips and you cop their head (and then get a ban), can’t dive in low at the lower leg (cannon ball style) as it’s dangerous contact and a ban, can’t tackle around the upper legs and slide your body weight down the legs (as we were all taught as a kid) as it’s a hip drop/dangerous contact and a ban - so now, the only technique left is to hit around the hips, and risk knocking yourself out if you get it slightly wrong or the attacker puts on some late footwork. I’m being quite extreme, but the NRL have minimised the acceptable tackle area to such a degree that the only place left is highly dangerous to the defender, or you can’t effect an aggressive tackle, it’s got to be ‘catch’ the attacker, which is impossible with the size and speed of some of the players - hence so many AC joint and pectoral injuries. All of that whilst the NRL have introduced rules to make the game faster than ever, so players are scrambling to make tackles like never before, against blokes who are bigger, stronger and faster than ever before.
The sooner the NRL accept that we’re a contact sport and injuries/accidents are inevitable, the better. Only deliberate or entirely reckless acts of foul play should ever lead to a player being banned.
