I'm pretty sure that most people on this site despise 2 things.
1. The Melbourne Storm and their tactics
2. The Referees and the judicial system
I'll start with Melbourne. Everyone knows they cheated the salary cap and all that stuff but the players still plead their innocence. I'm sure some of the players knew about the rorts, I mean you don't just wake up 1 morning and find a brand new boat sitting on your lawn without questioning where it came from. Also, the Melbourne Storm is by far the most barbaric team in the competition. You don't see other teams using the "Crusher" or the "Chicken Wing" in their wrestling tactics. The Storm do it every week and are rarely penalised. There should be a mandatory 2 match suspension for any player found to have completed a crusher or chicken wing tackle. The NRL must address this issue before a player is seriously injured because of these tactics.
Secondly, the referees are getting worse and worse. To actually list all their mistakes I would need a whole new blog. Harrigan has said that Maxwell got it wrong with Yow-Yeh's try last Friday. Well, why hasn't he been stood down? It was one of the most blatant forward passes I've ever seen. There needs to be an overhawl of the judicial system in Rugby League. Players are getting away with more and more these days. I just read that Sika Manu will probably only miss a week for a crusher tackle on Wade McKinnon which is such a small price to pay for endangering someone's life. If Sika doesn't fall the right way in the tackle there is a big chance the McKinnon's kneck could break. When Core Payne hit Jarryd with a swinging arm he was charged with a Grade 1 Careless High Tackle when it was quite obvious that he was intending to hit Jarryd high. Jarryd was on the ground and wasn't going anywhere when Payne came in with his arm cocked and swinging. For me it was at least a Reckless High Tackle. Also, penalties are being given for high tackles that aren't high and play is allowed to continue when a player is hit high. We've got a Video Referee so why don't we use him? Also, hands in the ruck. This really pisses me off. You see so many players knock on when it is clear that a defender has put his hand in the ruck and dislodged the ball and then you get penalties given when the defender is either no-where near the ball or the attacker has simply had a loose carry.
I would like to see a captain's challenge introduced where a captain is given 2 incorrect challenges per game and can ask the referee to have a look at a knock-on or a penalty if he thinks that the referee made the wrong decision. We saw this earlier in the year in the Newcastle game when Fui was penalised for a high tackle when it was clearly low. If we had of had a challenge system the penalty would never have been given.
The challenge system should go like this:
Each Captain is given 2 incorrect challenges at the start of each game.
They can be used for either a penalty or knock-on situation.
The captain has 5 seconds from the time the infringement is called to ask for the challenge.
Only the captain can challenge but he can be told to challenge by his teammates.
The Captain keeps his challenges so long as they are correct, so in other words if the infringement is reviewed and the outcome reversed the Captain keeps his challenges.
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