I too am watching less NRL this year. It predates the crackdown however. The problems are much deeper than the crackdown.

That's exactly right. It's  bee handled atrociously. There in nothing we discovered in the week  of round 9 that we didn't  know at the end of last season.

Same...

That makes 2 of us.
Irrespective of whether the dogs are playing or not, I'm a rugby league fan and I like watching the other teams play as I have interest in particular skills sets or gamestyles.

But instead of focussing on the game, I watch in fear that someone is about to be sent off or sin binned - for an accident, and one that was less his fault and more the player falling in the tackle.

I give them 3 weeks to fix this mess otherwise I can assure you, tv numbers will be down and the broadcasters will be applying the pressure on Vlandys 

This “mess” will fix itself IF The NRL holds firm. It’s not The NRL that has to change, it’s Victor f***in’ Radley.

Take yourself back to the times before this stand up and dance rubbish, 90% of players that hit somebody in the head - f***in meant it. Don’t buy this rubbish that they’re incapable of tackling lower and it’ll make the game softer. Was Trevor Gillmester soft? Was David Gillespie soft? Steve Folkes? And remember in those days, as an attacker the first thing a coach would tell you was put your head down and run hard - were they ducking? And yet still The Axe and Cement would hit you with a body shot, cut you in half and sit you back on your arse, duck all you f***in’ like.

Coaches, which most are on board with this, some surprisingly, will start telling their players to load up lower, players will adapt. And clubs instead of employing Rowdy Rooddy Piper and Gorgeous George as their tackling coaches, will start employing Trevor Gillmeister and Cement and the game will be better for it.

Freddy Fittler has it right, and this blokes coaching The Origin that everybody’s telling him will be ruined, the game will be BETTER.

The stand up ballet will end, there will be more Jake Trbojevic’s (who don’t seem to have a problem with players ducking) cutting people in half, probanly more offloads, maybe even the return of the ball distributing forward like Beetson and Brian Lockwood...

... and less f***in’ dancing with the stars.

Victor Radley can adept or f*** off, obviously not as hard as he thinks he is if he can’t cut them in half like Gilly and Cement, just a f***in’ pretender.

Mind you I will say the criticism of mid season crackdown is a valid one, they should’ve been onto this in the off season, they knew it was coming.

But, still no reason to stop now.

Heaps commented the other day that in over a decade of first grade and a billion tackles, he only hit someone in the head less than half a dozen times. And every one of them he meant it.

It’s not that players are incapable of avoiding the head, even with a “ducking” player (who’ve been around since the beginning of the game, and more purposely in the past) if they use a better technique. But they are incapable of avoiding the head if they go into tackles upright with the first intention of getting arms around the ball instead of just sitting the bloke on their arse.

Even players with the best techniques are gonna hit heads with shoulders, biceps, their own head and more, quite accidentally, if that’s the technique they’re coached to use.

So technique has to change, for the better.

Ducking is no excuse, falling yes.

You're missing the point Zef...
It's the accidental ones I have the shits with.
The ones where the tackler is making a regulation height tackle, and the ball carrier either slips or ducks. 
The game is destroyed when poor acting skills are rewarded and players feigning injury from any contact to their head, just to win a penalty and free interchange.

The problem is not just the high shots. You will see a huge increase in low tackle defensive HIAs and game will be ruined just as much.

I go back to my previous analogy... seat belts saved lives when introduced in the early 70s. But they didnt eliminate the death rate and they certainly increased lacerations and whiplash. 

You cant have cake and eat it.

Well maybe they need to rethink the "dominance" of tackles....

Maybe they should tweak the rules so that if you are tackled hips and lower by 1 tackler, you cannot offload in the tackle and you cannot play the ball until he is ar marker. 

If you are tackled higher than hips, you can offload and also do a quick PTB even if markers are not set

I tend to agree. The biggest issue I had was that it was halfway through the season we had another rule change. I’m more than happy the NRL stick with the rules for the next ten years. The problem is changing the rules in the off season than again mid season. 

I tend to agree with Zef. It's the vertical tango that's creating a lot of the problems. There is one way that the V'RLol can get rid of the acting and that is if a player gets a tap on the head, goes down and stays down even if feigning injury to pull a penalty, then that player is sent from the field and replaced, but the "injured" player is not to rejoin the game. He will be re-assessed by the club doctor and monitored for a week and then may be cleared for the next game. That should slow down the acting and only genuine cases would be prevalent.

I'm  not sure complicating the tackle law is the answer. I'm  with Sterling on this treat all tackles  the same.

I again point to the RU process. They recognise mitigating circumstances and the sanction reduces accordingly.  Send  off  to bin, bin to penalty kick etc.  Mitigating circumstances  include sudden significant drop in height and no time for player to react. This would go some way to addressing the accidental  concerns.  Players must realise that it's  not  an precise science  and if you aim at the margins, mistakes, not accidents will happen and be punished.

Probably the most sensible comment on this.
It will introduce a new attribute to player's skills set.

The ability to still play the game hard, but with a high efficiency in getting it right. The odd sin bin from getting it all wrong or unable to adjust in time will ensure players think twice in playing that way.

But this blanket sin binning and sending off must stop. 

Great point, players are capable of change and adjusting their skill set.
Maybe not midseason, but over an off season or with a few years of practice.
So overall.
1. Tackler has safe technique- player ducks or falls as last minute - genuine accident.
2. Tackler has risky technique- runner ducks or falls at the last minute - careless or reckless tackle.

What a lot of fans think are accidents are risky or poor technique.
Players can't change their technique overnight.
But the facts are there are some defenders who hit guys in the head more often than others and often those guys that do hit hit hard and with the shoulder, that is becuase a the point of contact and perhaps well before they have zero control.

In general the era of the wrestle and the modern game means tackle techique isn't as good as it was in the past.
Like all skills it can be practiced.

This still doesn't mean it was a good idea to change the rule midseason.

But players deserve some protection from the lunatic fringe eventually, the lunatic fringe exist in all sports and do stuff that risks serious injury to other players, that is a fact. One role of the rules is to protect players.

The problem here is that this all started with the aim of protecting players, but the NRL has lost sight of what that means and have had their minds twisted with legal repercussions which may or may not ever occur.

The NRL has to look in the mirror and recognize they play a tough game where no matter what you do, these instances will occur.

Like other risky things in life such as green slips etc, they are better off docking off 10% of player salaries (counted towards cap) and put into a compensation fund. 

The vehicle industry knows that disablement or life threatening injuries can occur in vehicle accidents and rather than try to eliminate them (which they know they cant), they ensure there is a safety net to deal with the injuries. That doesn't stop them from trying to make roads and vehicles safer, but they certainly dont eliminate vehicle use for fear of future lawsuits either....

And that is the crux of it all.

But give it afew more weeks and logic will finally set in

No I’m not, you are.

Mooloo makes a great point - you aim at the margins, it’s not an accident, it’s a mistake. And punishable.

See these aren’t “regulation tackles”. These are stand up wrestling techniques introduced around the turn of the millennium to stop offloads. The reason these MISTAKES are happening with increased regularity is because players are going into tackles upright to wrap the ball. The “ margin” that Mooloo talks about is almost non-existent.

And if you want to reduce players taking a dive or feigning injury after being hit in the head..... think about the easier way to get rid of that... will they feign head injuries when they’re cut in half Trevor Gillmeister style?

Dman brought up a stat about players concussed doing tackles the other day, and I read the same report he was quoting. Wether by design or accident what he failed to mention was (a) there’s still far more players concussed being tackled, than being the tackler. And (b) of the tacklers concussed, far more are concussed going high by shoulders and head clashes, than those going low being concussed by hips and knees.

And I got no idea of your point about seat belts... because whiplashes increased we should do away with them and settle for more deaths? Better to be dead than have a stiff neck?

You seem to have a zero or nothing attitude. If we can’t limit concussions to absolute zero than why bother doing anything to try and reduce them. If we’re gonna have whiplash, why bother trying to reduce death.

And finally, hell yeah the sin bindings and send offs should continue. Take away the stick and nothing would’ve been achieved. The player WILL adapt, I bet quicker than you think, because they must. Start second guessing the path that’s been chosen and it’ll just muddy the waters completely.

The NRL got the intent right, and we’ll get a better game for it, a HARDER game where how hard you hit counts more than how well you hold. They royally f***ed up the implementation.

But get over that and get on with it.

The reason I bring up the vehicle analogy is that people cannot live life without them. Not right now.

So at some stage, you have to "deal" with the issue without simply shutting up shop. 

The NRL has to remain a viable business by still attracting people to the game yet at same time dealing with the consequences of risk. If they go too far with safety (which I think they have done), it may be to the detriment of their product and ultimately to the viability of the game. 

I think they've gone too far with current interpretation. Others may differ. Ratings and revenue will answer alot of questions.

Marki, the problem is your analogy’s are no analogy.

They have zero relevance.

Dman 2.0 re-signed with Sharks this arvo

The parameters have been set by the NRL. The approach now should  be  to  get the best achievable  outcome within the broadest  interpretation  of those parameters and not try to change them. The NRL can not be seen  to walk away from this now or all hell will  break  loose down the track..

I reckon they should take the opportunity to move this SOO game that’s not gonna happen at The MCG to a regional centre somewhere as an act of goodwill to the bush.

Yeah, they’ll lose money, only get 15-20k, have to dump a heap of corporates but... stiff sh.t, take the hit for the opportunity of the occasion.

I bet it’d rate it’s socks off, look good on TV and be a hell of an event for some lucky regional area.

Ask for interest tomorrow, decision by weekend.

Yes. fast action needed.  We don't know how this is going to play out.  Players must be in location ASAP.

We need to strengthen our pack.

Option 1. Marty Taupau.
Option 2. Dale Finucane
Option 3. Young tearaway probably from Broncos or Wests Tigers.
Option 4. Anyone playing for Canberra who wants to leave - probably all of them.

Any other suggestions?

There is a great habbitable planet 1206 light years away, that is even better than Earth.
As far was we know it has no Eels fans, politicians, lawyers and accountants.

I recon we can knock up a quick space ship in Dman's garage over a few beers on weekends.
All great Australian building projects are done that way.

If there’s no lawyers and germoulists I’m in...

What about me?

Is it  called Utopia or Shangri la?

That show Zef was on about... it airs 7.0pm Sunday  on Prime.

All welcome, our main criteria is you need to drink beer, and think after a few beers that you know something about building spaceships.