NRL great PAUL GALLEN will appear on Nine’s 100% FOOTY tonight, debating rugby league’s hottest topics alongside Phil Gould and James Bracey. Tune in from 9.50pm AEST, as they break down all the big issues following the second week of finals!
The NRL only has itself to blame for the fiasco on Saturday night where play was stopped for the Mitch Kenny injury.
I don’t blame Mitch, or the Penrith trainer, one bit for what happened. It’s what the game has done to itself.
The rule was brought in so a trainer can stop the game if there’s someone down with a serious injury, and they think it’s dangerous for play to continue. If the game was stopped, then the player has to come off the field.
But we’ve seen from the start, the game’s being stopped for something as trivial as cramp. All the rule changes that we’ve seen of late have been introduced to keep the game flowing, to speed things up and have more action.
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This rule with the trainers being able to stop the game has just done the opposite. It allows teams to manipulate the rules to suit themselves.
That’s exactly what happened on Saturday night. I can’t get up Penrith, or Mitch Kenny, or the trainer. The game has brought this on itself.
People will say what happened isn’t in the spirit of the game. Well, guess what, this is elite sport. It’s win at all costs. We ARE playing for sheep stations. It’s might not be life or death, but it’s the next closest thing. Guys are playing for their careers. It’s a results driven business, and if you can do whatever you can to get the win, that’s all that matters.
I don’t blame Penrith one bit.
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The fact is people get injured during the game. It happens. I don’t even like stopping the game for injuries. Just play on. If there’s a natural stoppage, like the ball goes into touch or someone knocks on, well deal with the injury then. But to stop the game just because someone lays down, that’s insane.
It annoys the hell out of me. In rugby union, if someone wants a break, they lay down and the whole game stops. Rugby league shouldn’t be like that. It’s a war of attrition, and we’re stopping the game way too much.
Penrith won’t care if they get fined. Big deal. They’re still going. I bet Parramatta would have paid the same fine to still be in the comp.
I can’t even see how they’ll get fined. There have been countless occasions during the year when a game has been stopped for a leg injury. Countless. Just because this was a high profile game, and Parramatta are out, all of a sudden it’s a problem.
The referees can’t be expected to make a call, they’re not medical professionals, they have to take the word of the trainers. If they’re asked to stop the game by a trainer, they’ve really got no choice.
But whatever happens, it’s not Penrith’s fault. Penrith are doing what the rules allow them to do.
We even see play stopped so trainers can come on and strap a head cut or even a knee or ankle and the player stays on the field. It reduces the fatigue that the other rule changes are supposed to bring in. It’s such a contradiction.
The benefit to Penrith on Saturday was huge. You can’t put a value on it. I won’t say it stopped Parramatta from scoring, because Penrith’s defence has been incredible all year, they would have trained over and over for situations like that. They may well have coped with it, but they may not have.
But it made it a whole lot easier for Penrith once the game was stopped, they got their breath back and got the replacement on the field and their defensive line sorted.
The Blake Ferguson crusher tackle situation is something we’ve seen all year as well. I don’t blame Fergo at all. But it’s an embarrassment.
I’ve said forever, even when I was playing, if the referee and touch judges don’t see anything wrong with the tackle, then play on. That’s why we’ve got a match review committee, they can deal with things like that later on. But if the on-field officials all miss something, well it can’t have been that bad.
I can’t criticise Fergo at all, because something like this happens in every single match, often multiple times. And why wouldn’t you do it? You get the penalty. That can be enormous in the modern game.
Again, you do everything you possibly can to win. It’s no different to a cricketer who doesn’t walk on a caught behind if he’s given not out. Elite sport is won and lost on such fine margins, and you take every advantage you possibly can.
On a positive note, how good was it to see an 8-6 scoreline? Just a war of attrition, not a point scored after half time. I love games like that, yeah it’s good to see tries being scored, but give me 8-6 any day over a blowout, or 32-26.
At the end of the day Parramatta has finished where I thought they would. I maintained all year that they couldn’t win the comp, I never thought they were as good as many others did.
They’re a very good side, don’t get me wrong, but week two of the finals is about right for them.
The fact that Brad Arthur is supposedly under pressure is ridiculous. The only reason you’d even look at that is that they’ve got a heap of players coming off contract, and they’ll want to know who’s coaching going forward.
He’s a good coach, doing a good job, he’s made the second week of the finals three years in a row, but by the sounds of it they’re not convinced he can take them a step further.
I feel a bit sorry for him to be honest. I don’t for a second think he deserves to be sacked, so I really hope that talk just disappears.
One reason you sack a coach is because he can’t attract quality players, but Parramatta have a decent roster. Brad can attract the players.
They’re not far away, probably the only thing they’re lacking is an absolute superstar. If you look at the teams that are still left in the comp, they’ve all got someone with that x-factor. Players like Tom Trbojevic, Nathan Cleary, Ryan Papenhuyzen or Cody Walker.
There’s a lot of very good players at Parramatta, but those other guys I mentioned can create something out of nothing, and that’s probably where the Eels are lacking right now.
It’s the only thing stopping them from taking the next step.
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