Don't punish shoulders, punish recklessness

The thunderous blow from Rabbitohs, Queensland and Australian superstar Greg Inglis on Dragons lock Dean Young once again has ignited the debate surrounding the shoulder charge in the game with many crying out to see shoulder charges outlawed.

As a Warriors fan, I watch week in week out Ben Matulino lay out opponents with his shoulder. Big Ben certainly has the reputation nowadays of being one of leagues true hitmen and he puts opponents on their backside with regularity. Despite this, I struggle to think of incidences where Matulino has connected with an opponents head, I struggle to think of when he has been suspended or even been put on report, I struggle to think of times where I've been genuinely concerned about the consequences of a hit he has thrown. I love to see a big hit, to see a bloke get smashed, as I'm sure most League fans do, but I do not like seeing someone get injured one bit, no matter how much of a grub they may be. Ben smashes people, but he smashes people in the way the game is meant to be played. I have little doubt that if he wanted to take the suspension that he could be having people carried off the field regularly, but he doesn't, he just continues to deliver the big, perfectly timed, clean shoulder to ball runners who are unfortunate enough to have themselves lined up. That's the difference, Matulino makes shoulder hits as a League play, he doesn't shoulder charge because he wants to injure people. To me, it looked quite clear that Inglis wasn't thinking about making a League play, he was thinking about absolutely destroying Dean Young and in doing so he went beyond the laws of the game and will be sitting on the sidelines for three weeks.

Shoulder charges are not the problem, reckless play is the problem. Why should we punish the Ben Matulino's of the world by taking away a part of his arsenal that is effective, clean and entertaining? perhaps if the punishments for such reckless play were stricter, we'd see more players who made a point of ensuring that if they are going to drop the shoulder, they do it right. Sure GI now sits for three weeks, but what about in the game, what happens to the guys doing these hits? a bit of a telling off and being placed on report, worry about it next week. If the refs began to start sending more blokes off the field for hits like that, we'd be seeing a lot more coaches ensuring that their players weren't making these types of hits, not when the consequences could be so costly. Don't get me wrong, I actually like the report system because I want to see the game played with an even number of guys on the field, that is how it is meant to be played, but if players knew being sent off was a very real possibility, would they want to run the risk of making a hit like Inglis did? or would they just focus on making a League play instead of hurting someone. Or perhaps if the refs had the power to eject a player from the game while still allowing his team to play at full strength? no coach is going to want to deal with playing with one less guy on his team the rest of the game, especially if it's one of his stars, and I suspect the players themselves wouldn't want to be thrown out of the game either, so maybe they'd be a little more careful and show a bit more respect for the game itself and the guys they are playing against.

The shoulder charge issue always brings out the concussion brigade in full force nowadays. As a fan of American Football, I'm well aware of some of the tragic results of concussion that have come about over there. I agree wholeheartedly that concussions are a very serious issue and we need to ensure that the guys out there destroying each other for our entertainment need to be taken care of. But why does it take somebody being smoked on a shoulder charge for the issue of concussion to once again come up for discussion. I was under the impression that the NRL was meant to be cracking down on issues around concussion this year, of course, it wouldn't be the first time we've heard that. Instead of worrying about shoulder charges, let's worry about the guys that we see every week getting absolutely hammered, taken off, and they're back on the field ten minutes later. Can Farah even remember playing Origin? he certainly wasn't all there after the blow he took, but of course "that's Origin", except I see it every weekend in the NRL also. The sideline reporter will offer us an update, "yeah he's just a bit groggy but he'll be back", we all know that groggy is just a nice word to use instead of the dreaded "c word". It's OK, he's just groggy, he'll be right, sounds a lot better than well actually he's away with the fairies but we'll spray some water on him and shove him back on soon. If we're that worried about concussions and the aftermath of them, then stop the guys we see leaving the field not even knowing what direction they're going from coming back onto the field. For all of the concern over the Inglis hit and concussions, Dean Young is on the Dragons team list for this week. I'm no doctor, but are we meant to believe that his brain is ready for another round so quickly? as someone who is genuinely concerned about the concussion issue, this is a much bigger problem to me and it happens all the time. Sure, some will say that if it wasn't for the shoulder charge Young wouldn't be in the situation. Fact is in this game people are going to get hurt and even without shoulder charges we are still going to see some people knocked out, we're still going to see some people "a bit groggy". Young was getting driven off the field a week ago, I guess his brain made a quick recovery, plenty of time to worry about it once his career is finished though I suppose.

Barba magic at Brookvale

In case we needed another reminder of just how amazing the game of Rugby League can be, the NRL served up fans a mouthwatering clash on Friday night between the Sea Eagles at favoured stomping ground Brookvale Oval and the red hot Bulldogs lead by try scoring freaks Josh Morris and Ben Barba. With enough story lines to write a best seller coming into the contest, the performances on the field gave us a game that looked more like an Origin or Grand Final contest with the Bulldogs once again making a huge statement  walking out of Brookie with a 20-12 victory and for now sitting alone atop the NRL ladder.

The return of Des Hasler to Brookvale to take on the team he spent over 450 games with as a player and coach was always going to deliver fireworks, Manly made their intentions clear early, venomous tackles galore from all over the park at the Dogs ball carriers, enough to send the gargantuan "Dogzilla" Sam Kasiano off the field in the 10th minute with a suspected fractured cheekbone. The Dogs however absorbed everything Manly was able to throw at them early and the likes of James Graham and Aiden Tolman continued to soldier up field. In a clash of two forward packs loaded with massive men, perhaps none stood taller than the brutal Frank Pritchard. Despite the thunderous hits Manly were attempting to throw, Frank the Tank ran hard and tall all night, always looking dangerous, always freeing up his arms and looking to offload.

Anyone who knows anything about League knows full well that there's no more exciting name in the game right now than Ben Barba and once again he stamped his mark on this one. The enigmatic fullback kicked off the scoring with the first of two tries that really summarise the type of magical, everything goes his way form he is in right now. Stabbing through a grubber that was scooped up by his opposing fullback Dean Whare, he was soon the recipient of an inexplicable offload from Whare as he was being ushered towards the sideline. A slight hesitation step from Barba was all that was required to see him cruising in for yet another try.

It was not all glory for the X Factor though as he watched Manly co captain Jamie Lyon get his teams account under way. Barba was shadowing a Cherry Evans kick over the deal ball line, unaware of the lurking Lyon who pounced on the momentary lapse of the man who seemingly could do no wrong until that point. Manly valiantly fought their back into the game, persisting with their physical play trying to beat the Bulldogs into submission but the magician from Darwin was not done for the evening. With the Dogs barely holding on to a 2 point lead, Barba ripped away any hope from the Brookvale faithful in another stroke of brilliance, putting a kick through that proceeded to bounce off the padding of the goal post and perfectly into his hands to see him cross over for his second and the trade mark smile on display once again. His work under the high ball was also fantastic with a couple of body on the line Billy Slater like takes, and his defense saw him make a pair of critical try saving tackles.

The Bulldogs also saw halfback Kris Keating out of the game with the hamstring injury in the 21st minute, but  once again five-eight Josh Reynolds showed why he may just be wearing a different shade of Blue in his future. His performance was once again tenacious and aggressive. At one point he was seemingly knocked out trying to tackle the hulking Tony Williams, but only minutes later he was out for revenge, rushing up out of the line to put a hit on the T-Rex, and then proceeding to get up and make a tackle around the ankles of the next ball carrier. His style of play is going to be a real joy to watch come playoff time and it was none too surprising to see him and his opposite number Kieran Foran start to go at it, two guys who approach the game very similarly. Reynolds just seems up for anything, whatever you throw at him he'll soak it up and then go looking for more.