Fair To Say

Nathan Brown - just to be clear, the one who is coach of the St George-Illawarra Dragons - has stoked an ever-smouldering fire by yet again whinging about the Melbourne Storm and their tackling techniques. Ever since the Storm have started dominating the NRL in the past few years, around semi finals time there is a groundswell of discontent from the Sydney press with the egregious lack of local talent at the top of the ladder, which is then fed and nurtured by coaches of Sydney teams who are vying for finals spots. The Dragons, who are coming off a good string of wins during the Origin period when a lot of their opponents were weakened for numbers by their players resting on Origin duty, are starting to struggle now that the playing field has been leveled, and sure enough after getting a 26-0 walloping by the Storm on Monday, Brown has tipped his bucket on the Dragons video site.

They accused Jason Nightingale of headbutting … he headbutted Billy Slater’s fists. The only thing Jason Nightingale did wrong is he didn’t headbutt him hard enough as far as I’m concerned.

If you’re gonna beat them that’s what you’ve got to do, because they play within the rules that the officials allow them to play in.

The NRL Footy Show had a segment on the issue, where the boofhead audience cheered along as Brown’s above comments wishing further violence upon Billy Slater were aired, along with an interview with Roosters coach Brad Fittler’s expressing his obvious disgust at the situation in no uncertain terms. However, the tune that Brown was playing - that it’s not the Storm’s fault because the referees and the NRL are letting them get away with it, and the rest of the league should join in - seems to be getting through because there wasn’t much argument from the Footy Show panel or from Fittler.

Of course, this is all part of the circus. As sassy over at Oh Errol points out, solving violence with violence might get the bogans excited, but even such a compromised sport as the National Rugby League will not let things get that out of hand. That noted rugby league thinker Willie Mason, a panelist on the Footy Show during the discussion, pointed out that wrestling is now a primary part of the game based on the normal training mix for elite players, and Andrew Johns went as far to say as it IS the game.

Rugby league games have often been won or lost by how quickly ball carriers can get up to play the ball. The difference is that where 10 to 20 years ago, it was big hits to knock the players off the feet (or out) were what defined domination of the ruck, but nowadays the advantage seems to come more by how long tacklers can keep the ball carriers on the ground. The game evolves on its own of course, but part of the “problem” is the de-emphasis on front-on impacts caused by health concerns over collision injuries, as part of the rise of sport science since the 1980s.

The immediate solutions that the boys put up involving tacklers rolling off to a 5-metre exclusion zone make the game sound more like touch football, which is not going to please anyone. I just hope that the turning point on this growing issue is not going to be a sudden interpretation shift in this year’s finals series.. it would give Sydney fans raptures of ecstasy at chicken (wings) coming home to roost, no doubt, but it wouldn’t really be fair. Melbourne have played within the rules, but the rules need to be looked at in the offseason. As if rugby league didn’t have enough to worry about!