Now I was one of those bemoaning the banning of the shoulder charge. However the following incident justifies its banning.
I assume most of your heard of the death of James Ackerman in the Qld Cup a few months ago. His injury was directly attributed to a shoulder charge. While the tackle was not deemed reckless, did not make contact with the head, it still caused severe whiplash which severed arteries in his neck. He left behind a young widow and 2 young children. Regarding whiplash have seen many players tackled from behind after passing ball and relaxing and obviously suffering a minor neck injury. Not sure if this could be policed better by refs.
Not sure if presently done, as there is a fund raiser for the family, but surely NRL, Qld and NSW Cup and country league comps, etc all have life insurance and TPI (for lifetime injuries like Alex McKinnon) on players like they apparently have for medical insurance.
Deaths and severe injuries are rare in league but do happen and surviving members should not be left destitute if he is the only bread winner. They have already suffered enough emotionally without suffering financially.
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I totally agree. A few years ago the refs were policing ANY contact with the kicker. Now every kick results in the kicker being flattened. This along with taking chasers out who are contesting bombs is a bloody disgrace. What is the point in having rules if they aren't enforced.
Big D kickers have been getting flattened for decades.
Glenn is there any footage of this so called shoulder charge that leg to the guys death?
And if the tackle was not deemed reckless how was it classed as a shoulder charge?
Im just trying to get the facts straight here because somethings not fitting together, Whiplash is part of a tough game mate, it can happen.
The game has already been destroyed to within an inch of its life from over regulating it, the game comes with risks, just like sky diving, race car driving, boxing, MMA etc etc, if you steralise a game to much its no longer worth playing, this isnt oztag although its moving in that direction.
How can you remove 'whiplash' from a game that has the physics of RL, its just impossible unless you bring in the rule only hugging in tackles.
Do we ban bouncers because Phil Hughes died as a result? its the same thing.
I agree with you on the compensation, all players should be insured for serious injury and death.
No footage has been released. I agree with Snake. Whiplash happens in this game, you can't expect it not to. You have two opposing forces moving at speed that collide. Now, very few tackles actually result in whiplash these days and it's important that is pointed out. The game has a habit of being reactive to an isolated incident and it needs to collect data on the rate of whiplash injuries and work out if it's a serious issue or in a very small minority.
Theres less head highs and reckless tackles now than in the history of the game, this is knee jerk stuff imo.
Henry Pansy Perenara looks like he's about to cry when handing out a penalty
I recon youve got this backwards Glenn, they are policing the shoulder in a ridiculously over the top manner, guys are getting suspended for simply naturally bracing themselves or turning to defend themselves from a front on hit.
Things have gotten out of control and the games being destroyed, its a contact game, how many tackles are made a week all over the world and how many cases of serious life changing injury or death do we have, its a very, very tiny percentage, yes im all for making rules that protect players safety and weve been doing it for years but its to the point that the games suffering from it.
The most important part of the article was whether there was Life or TPI insurance to cover those serious injuries as stated in the article.
Yes I agree that people bracing themselves have been pinged by refs but in most cases exonerated by Judiciary.
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