Then on the other hand, you’ve got a different ref binning players because a player slipped into their backside or their head is 50cm above the ground and head contact is literally unavoidable. And I mean literally, it is scientifically impossible for a player to react fast enough to not get them in the head or to disappear out of the way.
You have them then compounding all of this by not giving Toupounuia a send off and long suspension for raising his knees into a tackler who is going low…twice.
Taupau should have received a longer suspension when he did it and this one should be 10 games. He kneed Piakura TWICE for crying out loud. This is where players are being told to aim so as to avoid high shots, you need to protect them.
That was the most obvious binning of all the incidents of the weekend but game management stopped the bleeding obvious from happening and this is the glaring instance of the issue with officialdom.
And you can remove the bunker (which of course will be wonderful) but the above incident is still going to occur without it. How are the NRL fixing this?
They should at minimum outline the criteria that determines if someone should be binned.
Abdo talked about a decision tree that they are meant to be using... I've heard the term before so it's not some fluff thing pulled out from nowhere.
They talk about moderate force, mitigating factors, etc. but there are no definitions of what these things actually mean and the full list of what is in the decision tree... the media then either play dumb or are dumb and provide false information to the audience... at which point there is so much confusion around what the rules are meant to be.
The best thing the NRL could do is simply give the decision tree to the media, they will then send that out to the masses and will have no excuse on not knowing if something should be binned or not.
They then need to be consistent with using that ****ing decision tree... it will make things black and white so people will know if something should be binned or not.
All the coaches, players, audience and media will know what criteria the refs are meant to be following... if a team fails to follow that and ends up with 3 guys in the bin then **** them... that team and those coaches know what the rules are and are choosing to ignore them... they should not be protected because of game management... they should be called out for being incompetent... not just allowing the coach to blow up in the presser that it cost them the game and then the media supporting them because they're mates... call the ****ers out as not following the rules.
Also if the bunker is sending someone to the bin... make them spell out why just like they do for try scoring situations.
Commentators sit there and act confused about decisions like put downs on tries because someone hasn't re-gripped it, but they move on because they know what the rules are even if they are stupid... they can bitch and moan about the rule, but shouldn't bitch and moan if the ref has applied it correctly.
If the bunker is talking through the decision then it will hold them accountable, but there will also be no confusion around why they are getting binned.
- Contact is at least moderate due to x,y,z (shoulder contact, visible signs, etc.)
- There are no mitigating circumstances (ie player has not dropped)
- Lack of duty of care from the defender (ie defender's target point was always high, defemder was careless (ie shoulder charge/swinging arm/no wrapping motion), etc.)
You could make it that 2/3 of the criteria has to be met in order to be binned or whatever their current decision tree actually is. My suggestion of 2/3 is primarily the mitigating factors... a player could drop 6 inches, but if the defender was always going to smoke them in the face with their shoulder then they should be still going to the bin.
But if a player has dropped half their body height and collected someone's shoulder who was originally going to get them in the ribs then they don't deserve to go to the bin... you can still make it a penalty and on report, but he doesn't need to go to the bin as well.
That would allow someone like Mariner to not go to the bin, but is not a blanket get out clause on mitigating factors... because you know that is exactly where the commentators will go to in order to create outrage. ie "why has this person gone to the bin when the player has dropped but this person isn't... blah blah blah... article on Fox Sports"
