Back in the day it used to be called baulking. I remember the Round 2 2012 Broncos/Cowboys game, Yow Yeh got pinged for it when he went up early and drove the ball forward with his hip. I remember arguing that it was a fair penalty on here and some folks didn't want to hear it.
1st Half Replay of the Round 2 clash between the Brisbane Broncos and North Queensland Cowboys
www.nrl.com
18:20 for those curious.
I thought it was just one of those calls that happens, then this happened in a State of Origin.
And I was really confused. Probably the most blatant disruptor of all.
The Shibasaki call was harsh. I could understand it if he wasn't a genuine chance of catching the ball but he timed the contest fine. That was a blatant square up for the Drinkwater penalty. Shades of Roosters 2021 where Radley was rightfully penalised for taking out Isaako's leg on the field goal and then they penalised Flegler on a bogus captain's challenge where the bunker couldn't even figure out what he was looking at. It took goading on whether there was any high contact and dead-set you needed hot spot to find it.
The Broncos have now lost games for competing too hard (Canberra 2023) and not competing hard enough (Cowboys 2026).
At the end of the day all you can do is laugh.