Scrap the judiciary: James Graham calls for NRL to end ‘embarrassing’ farce
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One of the NRL’s most experienced players has called for the game’s judiciary system to be scrapped entirely.
St George Illawarra veteran James Graham - who has played 180 professional games in Australia and more than 400 worldwide - suggests players be robbed of the right to an appeal process for on-field incidents.
As it stands, the NRL’s match review committee issues a charge sheet after thoroughly watching replays of each game.
Once charged, a player has the right to challenge that in front of a judiciary panel, and the panel then makes the final decision on guilt.
But too often the system causes controversy among pundits and punters, with discrepancies between the MRC and judiciary becoming farcical at times.
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Graham says the game may be better off without it.
“As a player, as a fan, you want consistencies from it,” he told NRL 360.
“There’s call for an overhaul but I was thinking do you even need a judiciary? Or do you just have them say ‘that’s foul play, you’re banned for one game or banned for two games’ and you don’t get a right to defend yourself.
“I think it’s something that you could look at other examples of other sports and see if it’s worked or not.
“It would definitely end this cycle of will they or won’t they get banned? Because I think it just looks a little bit embarrassing when players get charged then they end up getting off.”
NRL 360 co-host Paul Kent pointed out before this week, a total of 18 players had gone to the judiciary to fight an MRC charge.
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Of those 18, eight had won and 10 had lost.
There’s been countless controversies caused by players getting off too lightly, or not being punished sufficiently by the system.
Retired premiership winner Michael Ennis agrees there needs to be a swift and radical overhaul.
“The system needs to be rissoled completely,” Ennis said.
“It’s been awful. The fact you’ve got Nelson Asofa-Solomona that does that style of (crusher) tackle and doesn’t get charged; you’ve got Sam Burgess who knocks Matt Moylan out cold and gets a fine; then you’ve got a guy, again Sam Burgess, who pulls hair and now he’s missing a semi final.
“We’ve got Viliame Kikau that makes minor contact and misses two weeks; Jake Trbojevic does a spear tackle which is very similar to what Nick Cotric did, and he gets nothing yet Cotric gets three weeks.”
https://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nr...e/news-story/6c690551826219a538d04cb8f4d301cc
