Phil Gould Blows up over NRL’s ‘greatest abomination’ after Kalyn Ponga storm

Phil Gould has delivered an extraordinary rant in calling out “the greatest abomination perpetrated on our game in history”.

Phil Gould and Kalyn Ponga. Photo: Getty and NRL Photos.

Phil Gould has delivered an extraordinary rant in calling for an end to the NRL’s head injury protocols.

The Bulldogs’ football boss on Monday night slammed the introduction of independent doctors being used to assess potential head injuries while watching matches from inside the NRL’s Bunker.

His comments came after the sport was left divided by a series of controversial calls over the weekend, highlighted by Kalyn Ponga being dragged from the field to undergo a head injury assessment (HIA) during his team’s loss to the Warriors.

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Gould was raging on Monday night and described the new review process — which has taken responsibility away from club doctors on the sidelines — as “the greatest abomination perpetrated on our game in history”.

NRL football operations boss Graham Annesley on Monday defended the league’s safety-first approach. The recent changes to the operating procedure means the independent doctors now tell medical officials on the sideline when a player needs to be taken from the field to undergo a HIA.

Annesley said in his first weekly briefing of the season 14 of the 19 head injury assessments in Round 1 were initiated by club doctors, with the other five issued by the person in the bunker.

However, Gould has torn the league to shreds for its “overkill” approach.

Ponga was stunned. Photo: Fox Sports

“I’ve talked [about] this concussion hysteria and where the game is headed and why it’s headed that way and who they’ve given weight to: media and doctors and lawyers. All this misinformation...” Gould said on Channel 9’s 100% Footy.

“I think the doctor in the Bunker is the greatest abomination perpetrated on our game in history. It’s confusing for players. Not every bump to the head is a concussion, not every concussion is life-threatening. It’s just total overkill.

“I don’t know how the players and the coaches are going to contend with this. I understand player welfare. So do clubs, so do coaches, so does everybody, so do doctors.

“Unfortunately the club doctors are put in a position where they want the independent doctor because they don’t want to have to make the decision themselves. It’s just too difficult.

“It’s not going to change, the game will not back away from this, they will keep doing it and it’s going to create more and more problems.

“Not every slap to the face or bump in the head requires a HIA review,” Gould said.

“It just would appear that old mate up in the Bunker has decided whenever someone gets a bump to the head they’ve got to go off and get checked for 15 minutes, which I find totally ludicrous.

“It’s like arguing with people on climate change. It’s the same thing. They keep throwing up the same rubbish. How far down this rabbit hole do you want to go? As they say, don’t argue with idiots.”

Gould sensationally declared the NRL’s approach is motivated by the ever-present threat of players potentially pursuing a class-action case against the league for failing in its duty of care to protect players. An unprecedented lawsuit from NFL players famously resulted in a $1 billion pay-out to players over concussions suffered on the field.

Kalyn Ponga was off the field in the dying final minutes. Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images.

“I find it ridiculous that a doctor sitting in the Bunker nowhere near the ground, without even talking to the player, looking at the player, examining the player, can decide he’s category one and can’t return,” Gould said.

“Even if that player comes off and passes his HIA, he can’t return because old mate’s already ruled him out of the game.

“We’ve seen the bad ones, we know the bad ones when we see them, we know the ones that probably shouldn’t return to play, the clubs already know that. But the rest of them? The slaps in the faces and all that sort of thing? It is an indictment on our game — it really is.

“The players don’t understand why they’re being dragged there.

“And it’s all about litigation, it’s all about litigation, that’s what it’s about ... They’re worried about this tsunami of class action which has been threatening for ages but which never comes, and if it did, I say take them on.”

His comments were in line with those made by Ponga after the Knights’ loss.

The Knights co-captain ran in to dive on the ball but was knocked down by Warriors prop Addin Fonua-Blake.

Ponga grabbed his head but bounced straight back to his feet, walking back to the line — he was shortly after ordered from the field to undergo a HIA.

It will be interesting to see their take on it, I have been knocked out before and definitely wasn’t in any state,” Ponga said.

“I couldn’t believe it, 10 minutes to go, game on the line, I am literally fine, I think there’s an assessment that normally goes on but I got taken off by an independent doctor.

“It caught me by surprise, I said to the ref ‘I’m not going off’, but it’s not his call, it is someone in a box.”

Coach Adam O’Brien said the Bunker was “jumping at shadows”.

“There was a minute to go, so it ruled him out of the game,” O’Brien said.

Phil Gould and Kalyn Ponga. Photo: Getty and NRL Photos.

“But he was unaware of any incident, like he said, he knows what they feel like.

“And we’ve worked really hard, he has to get himself back in the game and now we are jumping at shadows to get him out of the game, I don’t get it.”

Despite all this, Annesley was happy with what he saw.

“I’m comfortable with the way everything was handled over the course of the weekend,” he said.

“Every HIA every week is reviewed in great detail by the NRL chief medical officer on a Monday.

“All 19 HIAs – whether they were controversial or they weren’t – were all reviewed in great detail. I’m not going to second guess the judgement of a doctor when it comes to the health and safety of a player.

“Do they err on the side of being conservative? Well, maybe so.

“But wouldn’t we all rather they erred on the side of being conservative when it comes to the health of a player, rather than erring on the side of being too liberal in how they apply their judgement, and a player stays on the field and gets another knock – a more serious knock – that compounds the injury in the first place?

“That can have long-term implications for that player. We’ve seen too many players retire prematurely because of injuries.

“No one does this to be a narc or to take a team’s best player off the field. We’re just trying to ensure that players are safe.”

Originally published as Phil Gould Blows up over NRL’s ‘greatest abomination’ after Kalyn Ponga storm