I understand punch-ups in football. I remember. I get how, in the heat of the battle, with the adrenalin surging, the eyeballs rolling, possessed by the certain if erroneous conviction that winning the match is the most important thing on earth right now, fists can fly. But I still don't get the Paul Gallen thing in Origin I, and the belting of Nate Myles.Just before half-time on Wednesday night, Gallen comes in with a swinging arm on the already tackled Myles. The Queenslander's head is exposed, with his arms pinned, and so Gallen rattles his brains one more time for good measure. Amazingly, as they all get up, Myles still has his arms by his side, and it is at this point that Gallen unleashes a left-right combination to Myles' head, and a wild melee ensues. This, we're told by Gallen, was a get-square for the nasty way Myles tackles, which he says involves the twisting of knees and use of the head.
But hang on, this is the same Paul Gallen who first came to public notoriety in 2008 for tearing at the freshly inserted stitches of an opponent, gouging away so that the stitches came apart, the blood flowed once more, and he again had to leave the field. This is the bloke who gets to take the high ground about the right and the wrong way to tackle? Please. Most extraordinarily, despite the referee being right there on the spot, Gallen's action wasn't judged as being worth a send-off or time in the sin bin? If that isn't worth a sin-binning, what exactly does it take?
