The number of ferocious tirades he’s unleashed on the NRL is enough to fill a season’s worth of footy shows, but rugby league guru Phil Gould may have submitted an undisputed stand-out on Monday night’s edition of Nine’s 100% Footy.
“I’m going blue in the face,” Gould said as he neared the climax of his lashing.
Touching on crusher tackles, obstruction, trainers, head injury assessments and several other divisive topics, the legendary coach declared the league had introduced “stupid, pedantic rulings”.
He also said the NRL had set itself up for “mockery” and that the league’s failings had come back to haunt it during the second week of the finals.
“You got your receipt on the weekend,” Gould said.
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His rant was sparked amid a panel discussion on the Panthers’ manipulation of referee Ashley Klein during their 8-6 semi-final win over the Eels on Saturday night.
As Parramatta hounded Penrith‘s try line while trailing 8-6 in the 76th minute, Panthers hooker Mitch Kenny fell to the turf in backplay and trainer Pete Green hurtled onto the field.
Green demanded Klein to stop play and the whistleblower did so immediately, allowing the Panthers to recover and restructure on the third tackle.
While there’s no denying Kenny was hurt, there was no need for play to be stopped, given the location of the Penrith rake on the field and the fact it was only a minor injury.
Gould and former Sharks captain Paul Gallen opted to lump blame on the NRL instead of the Panthers, stating that Penrith had simply exploited the league’s fallible governance.
But Gould’s blistering words extended far beyond that situation.
“If you keep making stupid, pedantic rulings and be influenced by social media in trying to shape your game, then you’re going to end up with this,” Gould said.
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“And the top coaches and the top players and the referees will make a mockery of you the closer you get to the big games. And there were a number of instances on the weekend where players made a mockery of the rules. And there are a number of times where the rules have come back against us.
“It’s reported that the Panthers made 15 interchanges on the weekend. Fifteen interchanges! When you take into (consideration) HIAs, every time we put a player on report now … So every time you go back three tackles and the bunker wants to put someone on report for some innocuous incident, that gives a free interchange to the other team.”
Gould then blew up over Parramatta winger Blake Ferguson’s blatant milking of a crusher tackle, which earned the Eels a penalty in the 45th minute of the Mackay clash.
Again, though, Gould obliterated the NRL, not Ferguson.
“We had Blake Ferguson milking a crusher tackle here. Why? Because they’ve allowed them to milk it all year,” Gould said.
“The penalty goal that ended up deciding the game – you tell me with a minute to go in a grand final, 12-all in front of the posts, (that) the referee’s going to penalise those incidents. Not in a blue moon! They had chances to penalise the Panthers in front of the posts the other night late in the game but didn’t do it because it was match-defining. So what they take during the game and during the course of the year comes back to bite them later in the year. If you can’t penalise someone in front of the posts with a minute to go in the grand final at 12-all, then it’s not a penalty at any time.
“The problem is you’ve been so pedantic with it all year. Obstruction rules, all sorts of things, putting players on report, tackled without the ball, crusher tackles, all these things we’re looking at, bumps in the night, players getting in each other’s way … We want to go back and put them on report and penalise them.
“Take that forward to grand final day and tell me you’re going to penalise it in front of the posts with a minute to go. You can’t! Which means you can’t do it back then. I’ve been saying it for three years. I’m going blue in the face saying it.”
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Well aware of the explosiveness of his rant, Gould defended his spray.
“Everyone’s saying I’m a whinger and everyone thinks I’m complaining for the sake of it,” Gould said.
“I don’t. I’m trying to help the bloody game. I’m trying to help the people that do all this and are doing it for the wrong reasons.
“You got your receipt on the weekend.
“How often this year have we seen trainers running on and stopping the game? It’s been a blessing because the score’s been 50-0 a lot of the time and we wanted the game to stop. We were sick of watching it. But we’ve allowed it to go on to the point that at a crucial game in a final … Pete Green runs on the field. ‘Stop, stop, stop!’ ‘He’s got to stop.’ ‘Why?’ ‘Well he’s got a bindi in his shoe.’ This is where we get to if we listen to the fans and if people who don’t know how to implement the rules implement them. Then we allow the referees to run their own race.
“How long’s this show go for?” Gould said as he checked his watch.
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“This is the receipt you get at the back end of the year when you run your competition the way you have during the year.
“And that’s not criticism; that’s trying to help you, trying to help the game.
“Now you’ve found out the fans are sick of it, absolutely sick of it.
“We had our experts here the other night looking at the Jarome Luai disallowed try for obstruction … Mitchell Moses said, ‘I’ll fix it. I’ll just run into the decoy runner and get us a penalty.’ And that’s all he did. He said, ‘That’s how I’ll fix it. I’ll just go and tackle the decoy runner and let it disrupt the line and the video ref – he doesn’t know any better.’ … Mitchell Moses actually half high-tackles him to make sure the collision takes place. Throws his arm out and tackles him.
“Later in the game, (Marata) Niukore gets put on report for a tackle on James Fisher-Harris who for all money looked like he was getting the ball, bumped him, they come back, put him on report, free interchange, Fisher-Harris goes off and has a rest and goes back on.
“The rules are wrong. They’re not made of porcelain.
“I understand wellbeing, but this whole thing …
“Don’t start me on the James McManus court case on concussion please. That’s another show.”
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