Paul Kent: South Sydney’s wrestling dossier can impact game on global scale

The NRL has been criminal in overlooking the slow corruption of tackling that now infects the game. But South Sydney’s wrestling dossier has the potential to save the game on two levels, writes PAUL KENT. “Come on big man run, come on play the ball,” it went. “You’re playing, the greatest game of all …” Rugby league sold itself as The Greatest Game of All and, for the young and hopeful, it was the big dream. Turner sexed it up and made it appealing to both demographics and the game kicked again. Many then pointed to the game’s survival through the Super League war loomed as testament to its greatness. Nobody was sure any other game could have survived. ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys returned from Silicon Valley this week where he laid the groundwork to sell the next broadcast rights to tech giants Google, Amazon Prime and Facebook. Or at least to get them in the fight. The world is getting smaller. And depending how smart they are, which is no given, it might be to the NRL’s great advantage. If the NRL can figure out how to capitalise on this shrinking world it could bring an era to the game never before seen. The squeeze means sports here in Australia find themselves in a tougher market every year. Why watch the local NBL on your television when you can watch better athletes in America’s NBA on that same television? Why watch local A-League when English Premier League is a button away on the remote? The NRL’s tremendous advantage is it is already the best rugby league competition in the world. On top of that, the game is perfect for television. The late Sam Chisolm, who, behind Packer, knew television better than anyone, always said rugby league was the best television sport in the world. It all happened there on the screen, he said. Unlike AFL, where they say it is a better game live because you can see what is happening off the ball. It sets it up for the NRL to sell the game like never before. The trick is how. The example might just be across the ditch in the shape of the All Blacks, who play out of a country much smaller than Australia, in a game not much bigger worldwide than league, yet have gathered such a reputation for excellence their brand is recognised worldwide. The All Blacks set a standard for themselves that has left the rest of the rugby world behind. FOOTY TIPS! Join WA’s best footy tipping competition for your chance to win a share in a prize pool of more than $150,000. Register to play The Game tipping and fantasy now at THEGAME.COM.AU Overseas sports fans know little about rugby but know of the All Blacks. Every year NRL coaches make the pilgrimage to sit at the feet of NFL and Premier League coaches, some of whom make the pilgrimage to sit with the All Blacks. What if the NRL could achieve a similar reputation for being ahead of its field? The answer might have got delivered over the summer. It began after last year’s small war between South Sydney and Melbourne, when Rabbitohs boss Shane Richardson took aim at Melbourne’s wrestling tactics and the Storm erupted with simmering fury. The brawl sat uneasily with Richardson. “Frank and I are good mates,” he said, speaking about Storm football manager Frank Ponissi. A friendship can become collateral damage when it comes to protecting your footy club and so, while Richardson attacked, Ponissi lobbed grenades from the other side. Richardson never wanted a fight with Melbourne and even understood the Storms’ irritation, that wrestling complaints were always nicely timed for near finals time, and were often directed at Melbourne, but he also knew the truth in the statement. “The wrestling in the game is a joke,” he said. Rather than keep it an empty moan, though, Richardson went and did the heavy lifting. Something the NRL should have done years ago. Within weeks of season’s end he hired analyst Scott Barker to bring the evidence. Barker went through every tackle in the NRL and clipped together more than 100 tackles where players held and twisted players’ heads to wrestle them to the ground. The tape ran for more than half an hour, not a legal tackle among them. He found illegal tackles from every club, even his own. And when the tape was done and they cross-checked it with the NRL they found that, of the 100-plus illegal tackles, just four charges were laid. The NRL has been criminal in overlooking the slow corruption of tackling that now infects the game. Wrestling has become so ingrained it is now accepted a part of it, even though the rules clearly state that once a player comes in contact with the head or neck he must immediately release. Now, they twist and turn, a cowboy bulldogging a steer to the ground. One rule, chiselled in stone: where the head goes, the body will follow. Once the evidence was collected Richardson and chief executive Blake Solly, along with Barker, met NRL boss Todd Greenberg and head of football Graham Annesley. The NRL has since employed Barker to help differentiate between a normal tackle and an illegal tackle being disguised as legal, as clubs practise doing. Several of the South Sydney recommendations have been implemented. Richardson has done what many in the game have been waiting for years to happen; he said enough is enough. Leaving aside the tactics of winning football, which delivers the wrestler a tremendous advantage, nobody can argue the wrestling is a better spectacle for the game. The next time somebody walks out of a footy ground and says, “Great game, could have done with a bit more wrestling though”, it will be the first time. All this and it does not begin to address the legal minefield when a serious injury inevitably occurs and the NRL will be seen to have facilitated the tragedy through inaction. It has the potential to save the game on two levels. As sports around the world seek ways to make their sport faster and therefore more attractive, the NRL has allowed the game to get slower. Eliminating the wrestle not only protects players at all levels but allows the athleticism of the players to flourish. The NRL has the potential to be internationally recognised as a world class elite competition, in more than name only, like the NFL and Premier League and NBA. The game’s priority should be to deliver that competition, the best available, one so good even fans of rival codes must concede they are thrilled whenever they turn on their important televisions and the NRL is on. And that sells everywhere. NRL GOT IT RIGHT WITH SNAKE SACKING It is an unpopular argument, but I have always argued the NRL actually got it right — in terms of policy — with the Brett Stewart suspension many, many years ago, and that the to-ing and fro-ing since only underlines why. Stewart was suspended after he was charged after a drunken night out, for which he was ultimately found not guilty. When the verdict came down in court the NRL was bullied into adopting an “innocent until proven guilty” policy that then saw many players continue playing while facing serious charges. That all changed two summers ago, when the game nearly went down in flames. The NRL then shifted to the opposite side of the argument and introduced its no fault stand down policy. NRL boss Todd Greenberg pointed to the NRL’s $30 million profit announced Thursday as proof the game’s no-fault stand down policy was working. But with legal argument delaying Jack de Belin’s case until April, and possibly until after the season with the courts clogged up on other business, it means de Belin could miss possibly two full seasons of football. And many argue he could be found innocent, leaving him to resurrect a career that could be irretrievably damaged. Stewart was not the only player stood down under the original policy but emerged as its champion once he was found not guilty and coaches, looking to have their best men available, argued against the rule. They clearly had vested interests and outsmarted the game’s bosses at the time. Both failed. While Stewart’s case was clearly a mistake the system, making an informed decision for the welfare of the game based on the information available, the seriousness of the charge against the damage to the game, seemed to work best. What if, for example, a player is charged but receives a stay, the court unable to progress with a case but the prosecution unwilling to drop charges? A player could be sidelined until he reached retirement.