The McKinnon incident debate

[Kaz]

2 year recovery time frame...that's not good. I suppose it's a glimmer of hope that he can still play.

His family have been told his footy career is over.

'We just have to hope for the best for him': Alex McKinnon's rugby league career over following sickening neck injury

 

[Kaz]

He was probably trying to help his team mates and wouldn't have known the extent of mckinnons injury. Why does everyone expect him to be God?

Yeah, smith was none the wiser.

I have heard that McKinnon was screaming, I can't feel a thing.

That is probably why the players were in shock. (yes you could tell they are all shocked)

Smith mustn't have heard the screaming.

 

[Je$ter]

I feel like the awfulness of the injury is going to play a part as to what happens to McLean. He should imo only get 1-2 weeks.

This kind of incident makes you realize how lucky you really are sometimes.

 

[Super Freak]

I feel like the awfulness of the injury is going to play a part as to what happens to McLean. He should imo only get 1-2 weeks.

This kind of incident makes you realize how lucky you really are sometimes.

Honestly, if the NRL are serious about stamping it out of the game then harsher penalties need to be handed out.

 

[broncos4life]

Was McLean on debut? I'd be surprised if he comes back from this. I'd be surprised if the rest of his life is haunted by this if McKinnon doesn't walk again. 2 lives could be damaged by this tackle. It's really tragic all around.

all the negativity about Smith. He was probably trying to help his team mates and wouldn't have known the extent of mckinnons injury. Why does everyone expect him to be God?

I don't expect him to be god, I expect him to show an ounce of compassion. I would question how smith could be the only one on that field that didn't realise the extent of mckinnons injury.

But I suppose most will believe smiths Sgt Schultz routine just like they did about the salary cap scandal

 

[Bucking Beads]

I feel like the awfulness of the injury is going to play a part as to what happens to McLean. He should imo only get 1-2 weeks.

This kind of incident makes you realize how lucky you really are sometimes.

Yep. It was an illegal tackle but McKinnons ducking has made the outcome a lot worse unfortunately.

 

[broncos4life]

Honestly, if the NRL are serious about stamping it out of the game then harsher penalties need to be handed out.

Exactly. Why should he only get one to two weeks when other lifting tackles have gotten far more?

 

[Bucking Beads]

Exactly. Why should he only get one to two weeks when other lifting tackles have gotten far more?

When compared to other lifting tackles this tackle wasn't really that bad. It is just a very unfortunate incident.

 

[Porthoz]

What I don't get are people not blaming the three hulking players who knew his neck was under there, piling on and putting all those kilos on.

Are you serious?

This is the exact moment when things went sickeningly wrong:

Explain to me how you expect the players to magically levitate away from Alex once they're falling in the tackle? And how they "knew" his neck was under there...?

If you look at the tackle video again, not a single one of them piled on or tried to crush. You clearly see them get of the player pretty quick compared to how long it usually takes for 3 players to get off a tackled player.

I really dislike the Storm and Bellyache's tactics, and I have seen pretty deliberate crap done by players wearing the purple jersey. But it's not the case here, there is absolutely no malice in this, and this knee-jerking is ridiculous.Next thing, they are gonna accuse them of putting his head there on purpose.

This is just a very unfortunate combination of factors that led to a gruesome injury, a career destroyed, and suffering from everyone, starting with McKinnon, as well as his family and mates, but also McLean and the other players involved, who know their contribution led to this outcome, no matter how involuntary it may have been, and must be having sleepless nights.

People seem to need to assign blame when things go seriously wrong, instead of actually looking at what happened, and more importantly, how to prevent it from happening again. I hope that besides supporting the player and his family, that is what the NRL is focussing on!

 

[Porthoz]

Exactly. Why should he only get one to two weeks when other lifting tackles have gotten far more?

Because other lifting tackles were far worse, even if the outcome was fortunately far less serious. Remember this one...?

 

[Kaz]

Are you serious?

This is the exact moment when things went sickeningly wrong:

The hands between the legs beforehand, is the exact moment when things started to go sickeningly wrong.

 

[Art Vandelay]

Exactly. Why should he only get one to two weeks when other lifting tackles have gotten far more?

Do you think McLean's actions were more or less deliberate and malicious than, for example, Luke O'Donnell's spear on Boyd in Origin?

There are probably hundreds of tackles a season that I would class as more negligent, malicious and dangerous than McLean's, where little to no injury is sustained. If you want to make the game safer before these injuries happen you need to crack on those tackles harder, not just when somebody gets hurt.

As much as this is a shitty situation, especially for McKinnon and his family, I don't think it's fair to crucify McLean who is probably devastated himself.

That being said I expect McLean to get a lengthy suspension because the judiciary, like the Australian legal system, focuses far more on outcome than they do for intent.

Edit: Ninja'd by Port on a couple of points.

 

[Anonymous person]

The people who want a suspension, let alone a lengthy one, must've been watching a different tackle to the rest of us, fair dinkum. His body was barely above the horizontal when McKinnon ducked his head/shoulders. His leg up above the horizontal makes it look worse than it was. There are dozens of tackles where players get as above-the-horizontal as he did and no-one bats an eyelid.

It's ridiculous that the NRL has referred him to the judiciary because they don't know what to charge him with. Newsflash - just because someone got injured doesn't mean someone has to be suspended. It's like the Ray Thompson broken jaw, though even dumber. A guy standing his ground got like 12 weeks purely because of the result, not because of the action. Suspensions shouldn't be handed out based on the outcome. McKinnon breaking his neck is horrible, a tragedy, but it was not because of a bad tackle. It was a combination of things, including McKinnons actions and the fact that there were 3 big blokes in the tackle. The actions of Mclean don't even deserve a 1 week suspension. It was a tackle that went wrong in a freak way partly (and a huge part at that) because of the ball carriers actions during the tackle.

It was not a spear tackle. There was no malice or intent. It didn't even deserve to be penalised, and had the injury not occurred I doubt it would've been.

Like how the shoulder charge ban was a knee-jerk reaction to a hit 2 years ago, I fear the NRL will fast track another stupid rule change because of this. I'd say they'll ban all lifting in tackles, possibly only in multi-person tackles but probably all because that's how the NRL rolls.

 

[QUEENSLANDER]

It's a really sad state of affairs when the outcome of a tackle is how we decide how harsh the punishment should be. This tackle was a horrible accident. Its not even a spear tackle and was clearly not intentional. The result of the tackle should not have any effect on mccleans trial.

However, if the nrl want to punish people for longer if their is an injury involved, they have to do it this way: make blanket rules that basically cover the worst case scenario.

If they think that a spear tackle that breaks someones neck is worth 16 weeks, make ALL spear tackles worth 16 weeks. I think you will find players will think twice about lifting someone if they could be sitting on the sidelines for the next 4 months.

It might sound a bit harsh, but look at a player like Luke O'Donnell. He was suspended over and over and over. Its clear the small, leniant punishments never got through to him. He may have done a spear tackle, got suspended for 1 week, and then when he's back, done exactly the same thing again. This time, only getting 3 weeks. What if the week he comes back he broke someones neck?

a) a longer suspension wouldnt even have him on the field to do this to someone
b) a week off probably meant nothing to him, whereas 16 weeks on the sideline would 100% make him take notice, especially when clubs arent interested in signing someone that could spend most of the year on the sideline.

Obviously there would need to be gradings to some degree, but I think with / without intent would be the only ones required.

TLDR: if a kid does something wrong, u spank him / her. Said child learns not to do that again. Lets apply that to illegal tackles and make sure they learn something for once. If mcclean gets a long stint on the sideline, i expect the near similar tackle to result in the same ban

 

[broncos4life]

You all seem to be missing my point. I am not suggesting McLean's suspension should be longer because of the result, it should be long because all lifting tackeles regardless of result or severity should have a lengthy ban as that is the only way you stamp them out. Its the same as the shoulder charge, they have been trying to get that out of the game but the won't with suspensions of 3 or 4 weeks.

 

[broncos4life]

Because other lifting tackles were far worse, even if the outcome was fortunately far less serious. Remember this one...?

Is it illegal to place your hand between the legs and lift?

Did McLean place his hands between the legs and lift?

They are the only two questions that need to be answered, the severity of one tackle compared to the other is irrelevant

 

[Anonymous person]

Is it illegal to place your hand between the legs and lift?

Did McLean place his hands between the legs and lift?

They are the only two questions that need to be answered, the severity of one tackle compared to the other is irrelevant

That's not the only way to do a spear tackle though, in fact it's probably one of the least common ways of doing it. As you can see in the picture you quoted, O'Donnell didn't place his hand between the legs and lift.

Mclean didn't do that anyway, he grabbed a leg and the waist.

 

[Kaz]

There was no malice or intent. It didn't even deserve to be penalised, and had the injury not occurred I doubt it would've been.

No one is saying there was malice or intent.

It did deserve to be penalised because the player placed his hand between the legs of a player & he was lifted. That is against the rules, so that makes it a penalty.