Talking Footy

Thugs driving kids away from NRL
Phil Rothfield
The Daily Telegraph

RUGBY league junior registration numbers are on the decline. At the same time AFL and soccer are on the rise.

This doesn’t require a major investigation to reveal why. The reason is that rugby league no longer acts on foul play.

Mums and dads are seeing what happens in the NRL every week and deem the sport too dangerous for their kids.

Earlier this season Manly forward Martin Taupau viciously and recklessly smashed Sharks centre Jack Bird in the head with a swinging arm that knocked him almost unconscious.

A dazed Bird came off for the rest of the game. Taupau stayed on and finished up getting one week.

I used to cover judiciary hearings in the days when Jim Comans was in charge.

I guarantee Taupau’s swinging arm would have led to a four to six-week ban in those days. Absolutely no doubt.

This season we have had seven instances of tripping. It used to be an immediate send-off and suspension. Look at the photo on this page of Paul Carter trying to bring down superstar Anthony Milford. What a disgrace. Again nothing happens.

Go back and have a look at the replay of the Rabbitohs v Broncos on Friday night. Look at Sam Burgess’ dog-act on an unprotected Joe Ofahengaue on the ground.

Look at Adam Blair’s late and high shot on Adam Reynolds, who is just back from a broken jaw.

This game was prime time television on Channel 9 and Fox Sports.

The referee Jared Maxwell showed he was completely out of his depth. That he didn’t at least use the sin bin is a disgrace.

I lost count of the number of times he warned both captains yet did nothing about it.

Todd Greenberg has been in the job for five weeks now as NRL chief executive.

The honeymoon period is now over. He replaced Dave Smith and got the top job in the game because he allegedly knew rugby league from the grassroots to the NRL.

Yet he has sat back every week and allowed tripping to become an epidemic in the game without even instructing his referees’ director Tony Archer to do something about it. The entire match-review and judiciary process needs to be overhauled.

There are too many ex-players on so-called independent committees that are determining how we deal with this thuggery. Ex-players are ex-players. They are old school and have no understanding of the damage that their lack of action creates.

Television is the gateway to the game. The front door for casual observers. Many of those switching on this year would find some of it unsavoury.

Over the weekend I asked the AFL’s respected critic and former Brownlow medallist Gerard Healy what an AFL player would cop for attacking a player on the ground like Burgess did.

“I’d think six to eight weeks,” he said.

It’s time Greenberg did something about it. Why do we even have an independent match-review committee and judiciary? Why don’t we just pick the best qualified people.

The best thing Greenberg’s predecessor Dave Smith did was introduce an automatic sin-binning for punching. It is no longer part of the game.

The same thing has to happen with all foul play. Use the sin bin and, like punching, it will soon stop.

The risk of leaving your team with 12 players for 10 minutes is a bigger deterrent than missing a game the following week.

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/ ... 6a60464327

AFLcrap1 wrote:

Thuggery .
Lol
It's a collision sport .
It's not for everyone .

AFLcrap1 wrote:

There's always the protective mummy's who don't want little Johnny getting hurt .
Stories like this are trotted out regularly

That's why Sokka is so popular with the little kids

AFLcrap1 wrote:

Agree
But it's still seen as the softer/safer option .
No tackling where little Johnny might get hurt .

But usually by 8-9 a kid will be influenced by his mates at school if they are playing a contact sport .
Or he just wants his sport a bit rougher than Sokka so will gravitate to something else .

AFLcrap1 wrote:

Lol sloth field

He never has any source .

& lol at Bea .
Another thread that will most certainly backfire .
He has an excellent strike rate in backfire threads .

AFLcrap1 wrote:

AFLcrap1 wrote:

Lol sloth field

He never has any source .

& lol at Bea .
Another thread that will most certainly backfire .
He has an excellent strike rate in backfire threads .

Like clockwork


RICHMOND star Alex Rance will face the music after being reported for an ugly — and cowardly — cheap shot on Jack Watts.

Rance was beaten in a marking contest late in the last quarter when he let frustration get the better of him and struck Watts to the back of the head as he laid face down on the ground.

The ugly incident sparked a melee on the ground as Melbourne players rushed the All Australian defender in the forward pocket.

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/AFL/t ... 4389677243


Don't ya just hate it when the moral high ground crumbles underneath you