Got welsh family who is a union fan staying. He saw the tackle last night and said why not sin bin and penalty try and then no case to answer as wasn’t dangerous? He said that would have been the outcome in union in uk.
It was hard to give any argument why that wouldn’t have been the logical best outcome of this whole shamoozle.
Because it’s league mate. It ain’t union. And League was always far more brutal than the gentleman’s game of Union.
NRL rules only require a player to “attempt” to use his arms and hands to tackle, or hold on.
If Billy’s right arm and hand did not come into contact with Feki, then its more than likely the judiciary defines the tackle attempt as a shoulder charge.
Even then, as it’s a “careless” act, the judicary may have deemed the collision an unavoidable collision and not careless under all the circumstances.
On a side note, I was reviewing highlights of all Easts games last night just for kicks. Billy did a shoulder to shoulder bump on an Easts player in the corner vs Easts in Adelaide. He didn’t even touch the attacking player with a hand or arm. Darius Boyd also did the same thing in the corner vs Easts in Brisbane too. No attempt to use the arms or hands in either tackle and the match review panel didn’t charge either player.
The NRL can’t just pick and choose when it’s a shoulder charge arbitrarily. If the same adjudication was applied to Billy as everyone else, he never even gets charged and no penalty should have been given.
East west tackles should not and we’re never meant to apply to the shoulder charge rule.
What defenders do near the corner is a shoulder bump, not a shoulder charge. And shoulder bumps (where there is shoulder to shoulder contact or body contact) should never be outlawed. Only time a shoulder bump should be penalised is if there is contact to the head.
I can’t believe any fan of league would want the game to get softer than AFL, which still allow a “hip and shoulder” so long as there is no contact with the head. But I guess PC soft cocks just wanna ruin the hardness of league and make it netball.