NRL General Discussion Thread

[The Strapper]

They'll end up allowing him to play, once he receives clearance from Catalans, Folau just doesn't think the rules apply to him ... they've already registered a contract for Tony Williams to play for the Southport Sharks

Registering Williams was probably the right tactical move, no need to risk opening up another front. Don't know if he has any plans on an NRL comeback though.
The Folau issue should be just kicked down the road to the NRL and let them deal with it.

 

[Dash]

The Catalans contract issue is only giving the QRL temporary cover. Sooner or later it will expire or a deal will be done and he will be released from it.
Then they will have to make a decision.
They will need to have a plan in place then because this will happen. (probably sooner rather than later).

They have already said he can play once Catalans release him. This has nothing to do with prior incidents.

 

[Foordy]

In case anyone was wondering the NRL are wiping their hands of the diving issue. even having a dig at soccer for their diving problem while doing it

 

[Foordy]

Annesley puts onus on players over diving as Tamou defends Laurie​

Chris Kennedy & Alicia Newton; Mon 7 Jun 2021, 05:48 PM

NRL players, and in particular Wednesday's Origin combatants, should honour the spirit of the game and take it upon themselves not to engage in any gamesmanship around trying to draw penalties, according to NRL head of football Graham Annesley.

With the NRL already indicating the recent crackdown on dangerous contact won't be put aside for Origin, Annesley used his weekly football briefing to both provide stats that show the message is in fact getting through to players, and also ask that players do the right thing and not play for penalties.


"This is one of the genuine games of sport," Annesley said, with a thinly veiled swipe at sports like soccer where players notoriously feign injury looking for penalties.

"There are some other sports where you might raise a question mark about how genuine some of the participants are in terms of playing the game in a fair and hard way.

"But I don't think that's what our game's traditionally been about. Hopefully we don't see any of it."

Annesley supported Maroons skipper Daly Cherry-Evans' call for a gentleman's agreement not to lie down in Origin but also hoped that the entire NRL competition would feel the same way.

"Absolutely I would support that and I would say 99% of all players adopt that attitude anyway," he said.

"It's a bit of a slippery slope to start lying down for those sort of tackles.

"It's an issue that's difficult to deal with. The match review committee does have the ability to charge players with what they might consider to be contrary conduct, conduct that's contrary to the true spirit of the game."

The players need to be the ones driving it because it is too hard for officials in-game to decide a player isn't badly hurt, he added.

"In the most physical version of our game which can be played, which is State of Origin, which is all about toughness and endurance and not demonstrating to your opponent you've been injured in any sort of way because you don't want to give them any kind of advantage by knowing they've hurt you or they might want to target you by running at you because you might be carrying an injury," he said.

"In that type of environment it's almost counter-intuitive that players would fake some sort of injury and I'd like to think that flows through to the NRL as well.

"Players need to be aware if it was to happen, whilst they might get some short-term advantage from it, it could equally work against them if other players decide 'we're all going to start doing it' because they'll be disadvantaged by it at some point as well."

Wests Tigers fullback Daine Laurie was one who was criticised for gamesmanship over the weekend, appealing for a penalty before briefly playing possum then bouncing to his feet after receiving a penalty. His captain James Tamou defended the rookie on Monday.
"There's no doubt Daine would've felt it and it would've hurt," Tamou said.

"If you get tapped around the head it's always going to hurt. These are big men we're playing. There's no such thing as a tap to the head because you're going into a tackle with such force.

"He would've got up because he wouldn't have wanted to go off for a HIA. If those things warrant a penalty then we've got to adapt to the rules.

"I think that's the teams and the players adapting to the rules. I know for a fact some players lose the ball in a tackle but regather it but you don't see a call.

"If you're going to go above the shoulders and sweep above the ears that's the consequence.
"There can be really taking it too far [with milking] but with studies around concussion you've got to take everything seriously.

"The referees and game are doing a great job around concussion and that sort of thing so as players we've got to buy into it."

Annesley produced some stats that show in the four weeks since the crackdown started, players have adapted and are producing fewer tackles that result in sin-bins or match review committee charges.

Looking at purely high tackles across rounds 10, 11, 12 and the split round in round 13, on-report incidents had gone from nine to 19 to 12 and back to nine and sin bins jumped from five to 12 back to five with just two in four games over round 13.


There had been three send-offs in round 10 and none since while the number of players charged by the match review committee for high contact had increased from 10 to 18 before falling back to eight, with just five in the four games on the weekend.

Annesley stressed there had been no letting up of the interpretation by the officials, with forceful high contact still resulting in sin bins; rather it was a sign of the players adjusting, he said.

"We're seeing far less of those types of tackles with direct, forceful contact," he said.

"We're still seeing contact with the head and neck but it's less serious contact; players are adjusting their tackling style.

"There are more incidents where the referees can penalise for minor contact and players aren't placed on report, transferring some of the more serious incidents out of sin bins and send-offs into penalties and placed on report.

"This is not because the referees have backed off, which is the immediate conclusion people jump to … if you go through the games we saw on weekend, any incident of direct forceful contact still resulted in a sin bin."

Annesley puts onus on players over diving as Tamou defends Laurie

NRL players should honour the spirit of the game and take it upon themselves not to engage in any gamesmanship around trying to draw penalties, according to Graham Annesley.

www.nrl.com

 

[Kimlo]

Annesley produced some stats that show in the four weeks since the crackdown started, players have adapted and are producing fewer tackles that result in sin-bins or match review committee charges.

Looking at purely high tackles across rounds 10, 11, 12 and the split round in round 13, on-report incidents had gone from nine to 19 to 12 and back to nine and sin bins jumped from five to 12 back to five with just two in four games over round 13.


There had been three send-offs in round 10 and none since while the number of players charged by the match review committee for high contact had increased from 10 to 18 before falling back to eight, with just five in the four games on the weekend.

Annesley stressed there had been no letting up of the interpretation by the officials, with forceful high contact still resulting in sin bins; rather it was a sign of the players adjusting, he said.

Absolute horse shit. Seriously, they take fans for fools. Get fucked Annesley you slimy lying dickhead.

 

[Kimlo]

So they report it and over officiate it HARD, then they relax the rules gradually over the next 3 weeks, so they can then say look, it's working, players are giving away less penalties. It's the sort of thing you'd expect from an admin led by a horse racing in bed with the gambling industry buffoon.

 

[broncsgoat]

Everybody knew this would be the way they spun it about two seconds after the backlash started. They’re all fucking *****.

 

[BroncsFan]

In case anyone was wondering the NRL are wiping their hands of the diving issue. even having a dig at soccer for their diving problem while doing it

**** me they are a joke... ESL has shown them how to combat the diving, but nah we'll just rely on the players to be good upstanding people with high morals and ethics.

If I'm a ref I am absolutely not giving any penalties and forcing these softcocks to lay on the ground rolling in pain until the bunker tells me it's a penalty.

Force these wankers to become a meme if they are soooo desperate for another set of six

 

[Kimlo]

**** me they are a joke... ESL has shown them how to combat the diving, but nah we'll just rely on the players to be good upstanding people with high morals and ethics.

How do the ESL handle it?

 

[BroncsFan]

How do the ESL handle it?

If the ref misses it then the bunker has to deem it worthy of a sin binning or send off for a penalty to be given after the fact

MRC handles anything that goes on report.

So basically if Laurie wants to roll around on the ground for a slight touch on the face then 95% of the time the ref will just tell him to get up and play it.

Players will start to learn if something is actually going to get them a penalty or not... and the ones worthy of being binned shouldn't be missed by the ref anyway

 

[Foordy]

**** me they are a joke... ESL has shown them how to combat the diving, but nah we'll just rely on the players to be good upstanding people with high morals and ethics.

It's easy as piss to stop diving to get a penalty/sin bin under the new rules ... even if those idiots in charge at the NRL don't know how to do it all they had to do was listen to James Graham a week or so ago on NRL 360 ... when he could actually get a word in, when Vlandy's idiot cheerleaders weren't screaming over the top of him, he told the NRL what to do.

Graham basically said that should a player stay sown after a high tackle, make them go off for a mandatory HIA ... personally i'd go further and make it a mandatory 5 minute HIA not these 30 second BS HIA's that have crept into the game

 

[broncsgoat]

It's easy as piss to stop diving to get a penalty/sin bin under the new rules ... even if those idiots in charge at the NRL don't know how to do it all they had to do was listen to James Graham a week or so ago on NRL 360 ... when he could actually get a word in, when Vlandy's idiot cheerleaders weren't screaming over the top of him, the told the NRL what to do.

Graham basically said that should a player stay sown after a high tackle, make them go off for a mandatory HIA ... personally i'd go further and make it a mandatory 5 minute HIA not these 30 second BS HIA's that have crept into the game

Unlimited interchange?

 

[BroncsFan]

It's easy as piss to stop diving to get a penalty/sin bin under the new rules ... even if those idiots in charge at the NRL don't know how to do it all they had to do was listen to James Graham a week or so ago on NRL 360 ... when he could actually get a word in, when Vlandy's idiot cheerleaders weren't screaming over the top of him, the told the NRL what to do.

Graham basically said that should a player stay sown after a high tackle, make them go off for a mandatory HIA ... personally i'd go further and make it a mandatory 5 minute HIA not these 30 second BS HIA's that have crept into the game

I think they somewhat tested that a few years back when the HIA first came in and the conclusion was effectively that the ref isn't a doctor and shouldn't be the one making a call on whether they should go for a HIA.

Players have generally been getting around the current rules by not feigning an issue other than concussion.

You may recall that when diving originally started (ie. before HIA) players were full star fishing like they had been knocked into next week only to get up the second the whistle was blown.

Nowadays that kind of display requires the doctor to haul them off for a HIA... and I believe it even goes as far as if the player is exhibiting certain symptoms or certain actions happen in the incident then it doesnt matter if they pass their HIA or not, they're just pulled from the field.

Obviously that's too high a risk nowadays for a little love tap, so instead players will just slightly hold their chin or feel their neck, or they'll be death staring the ref pointing at their chin, etc.

Laurie did it all on the weekend... first he looked at the ref and when he didn't get any love he dropped his head into the ground like he was concussed. Realistically he should've been hauled off for a HIA given the symptoms he exhibited

The thing about the ESL approach is it carries over to other foul play actions as well, including crushers, late hits after they've passed it and shots on players off the ball.

Basically if the ref deems it alright then only the bunker can call for a penalty, but only if it warrants a sin bin or send off

 

[Foordy]

updates on Folau's case against the QRL:

• Supreme Court application was adjourned until July 12, where the case will be heard in a full-day hearing, Folau's representative agreed this was the next available date for the case to be heard, but wants an earlier date if possible
• Folau’s legal representative and the QRL’s legal representative, made note in the Supreme Court on Friday that there was “no dispute” Folau was still being paid by Catalans.
• QRL say he has a signed contract that won't release him until November 2021
• Catalans have reportedly demanded a "clearance fee"

 

[Kimlo]

Is that deadset? WTF

 

[Cult]

View attachment 13528
Is that deadset? WTF

Vossy is an overrated twat

 

[Dash]

Vossy is an overrated twat

He's not wrong in this case. Does every suspended player get a week discount for Origin? Or only the Aussie ones, or only the 'good' players?

 

[Cult]

He's not wrong in this case. Does every suspended player get a week discount for Origin? Or only the Aussie ones, or only the 'good' players?

Only players that were more than likely going to be selected I imagine. If Origin games don’t count than why would suspended players have to sit out Origin games as well?