It's pretty obvious for all to see it was a deliberate act from Penrith to stop play on the weekend. Given that it's the trainers second offence the NRL has an opportunity to come down hard on the trainer but also Ivan Cleary and the Panthers to stamp this behaviour out of the game. We know coaches are communicating to trainers to stop the game, if anyone watched the Tiger Town documentary we heard Maguire blow up deluxe because the trainer didn't get the game stopped. In my opinion the trainer should be suspended for 6 months and Ivan Cleary should not be allowed to coach this weekend at the ground. This sends a strong message to the clubs and will eradicate it immediately.
Secondly if they want to stop lay down Sally's like Fergo on the weekend the referees need to stop awarding soft penalties. The high shot from Will Smith was soft at best, nearly almost as soft as Annesley's defence today. Same as Niukore's apparent shot on JFH. These penalties were weak as piss, it's no wonder players lay down looking for soft penalties. The fact that Fergo had to lay down to get the penalty was a joke in itself given how brutal Klein was to Parra on so called foul play. Get rid of the soft high shots and Penalise the bad ones harder. This was an intense finals game and should have been refereed like an Origin.
Klein was bad, but Annesley is just as much to blame for not addressing this crap throughout the year
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Gus Gould just pretty much said on 100% Footy that the Will Smith penalty was a joke. He stated it was the game winning play (although, as is true, he said nobody at the time knew it would be).
He went on to say that Penrith players committed multiple worse offenses in front of the posts late in the game that were basically purposely not awarded to Parra as at that point in the game it is obviously game defining and they are too scared to blow the whistle. He argued that any offence that is not clearly obvious is purposely not penalised at back end of game for fear of how it may change outcome. He said, equally should therefore not be penalised at any time of the game.
Also, both he and Gallen slammed the NRL over the time off called by trainer for a "...bindi in the foot..." Both could not have been clearer that the NRL is to blame and Panthers could not care less about any fine they may receive.
Gus Gould also said it was reported Penrith had 15 interchanges. It was in a discussion about how coaches are using injuries to their benefit. Now, 15 doesn't add up. There were 3 times an Eels player was put on report. so that would equal 6 free interhcnages (1 off, and back on for each offence). Last time i checked 8 plus 6 was 14, not 15.
Klein is a eunuch ref. Not bold enough to call the game as it plays so he always gives the rub of the green to the favourites
The NRL have put themselves in this spot with their kneejerk reactions to the concussion mess they find themselves in.
They have made it clear that player safety has to overtly matter if they want to be able to avoid massive lawsuits in the future which would basically end the sport. So their kneejerk V'Landys-style reaction was an absurd crackdown on any player safety measures and it's caused a bunch of flowon impacts with players staying down / milking and trainers stopping play to let the defensive line reset.
What can the NRL do? Basically nothing now. They've wedged themselves because they're short sighted dumb-dumbs.
Play it out - what ref is going to call a player grabbing their neck for milking? No one. Because for the 99% of milking calls they get right, there's the 1% of milking calls they get wrong and put a players safety/career at risk. Neither the NRL or the refs can risk that now that they've made their stance clear on player safety.
Same as the trainers. How do you stop it? Player safety is Number 1, so you're going to stop trainers/doctors coming on the field? You're going to overrule their advice in the moment? Again, not going to happen.
The only way for the NRL to address this was to take a level headed approach to player safety, to keep money aside (even a portion of salaries) in some kind of players pension scheme to address any long term impacts to players health. But ultimately they needed to educate everyone that this is a contact sport and it will never be safe. It can be as safe as possible, but it'll never be safe. Instead they've tried to make it "safe" via a bunch of kneejerk actions, and in the process we've witnessed a season with more season ending injuries than any other season in recent memory AND implemented "crackdowns" that are being very obviously exploited by players, coaches and staff.
Now the NRL is going to have to find a way to somehow unwind their crackdown without opening themselves up to legal ramifications. Another V'Landys debacle that has been completely mismanaged thanks to his populist act-first-think-later way of managing the game.
On the trainers stopping play, this shit needs to be enforced properly. The fact the trainer got the game stopped without assessing the player is as much on the touch judge as it is the Panthers.
They'll just say they can assess from the sidelines for "serious injury", again the NRL have wedged themselves. Because there are legitimate times when you'd want a doctor to stop play from the sidelines (suspected back or neck injury) and refs aren't trained or informed enough to rule on player safety.
The only simple way out of this mess now would be to have something like an NRL doctor appointed to each game along with the refs who is the only person able to make a call on stoppages and take club trainers/doctors out of the mix. And I'm sure there would be issues to work through even with that given there would be a duty of care on the clubs via their players contracts directly with players so cutting their doctors/trainers out of the mix would likely be hotly debated.
At worst they will get a fine and maybe detegister the trainer..... hardly a disincentive not to do the exact same thing next week in a big moment
Odnrith had to cheat to beat us pure n simpkev
Who's Kev and where do I find him ???!!!🤔
Are you saying Penrith is like Oden?
Thunderstruck!
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