The NRL can’t afford to wait until the next serious injury to act on lifting tackles

CRAWLEY FILES: TODD Greenberg has to stop talking like a politician and start acting like the NRL’s head of football and take action on lifting tackles.

TODD Greenberg has to stop talking like a politician and start acting like the NRL’s head of football.

Greenberg’s comments about why the game can’t immediately ban all lifting tackles is not good enough.

This week Greenberg announced the Bulldogs were facing a $40,000 fine if they are proved to have breached the game’s strict new concussion guidelines because, he said, the game wanted to draw a “line in the sand” on acceptable standards in player welfare.

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News_Rich_Media: Paul Kent discusses the Bulldogs' concussion incident with Josh Jackson.

Yet almost as soon as he said that, Greenberg all but ruled out making changes to lifting tackle laws this season.

The NRL can’t continue to gamble with player safety.

They can’t afford to wait until next year to change a rule that should have been changed long ago.

They can’t wait until the next ­serious injury.

It will be too late then.

News_Image_File: Beau Falloon escaped punishment for this tackle on Melbourne’s Will Chambers. TITANS SKIPPERS SHOW TRUE LEADERSHIP

We are only going into round six this weekend, there are 21 rounds of the regular season to go before the finals. Don’t let Greenberg fool you. This change can be made in one day.

There is going to be a meeting of the NRL rules committee before the end of this month. Some of the game’s sharpest minds will come together to discuss what can be done to prevent another injury like the one suffered by Alex McKinnon.

News_Rich_Media: Melbourne will not appeal the seven-match ban handed down to Jordan McLean last week, but Storm second rower Ryan Hoffman doesn’t think the lifting tackle should be completely outlawed.

Darren Lockyer is on that rules committee and he has stated publicly all lifting tackles must be banned.

MEDICOS URGE NRL TO ACT ON TACKLES

Wayne Bennett is also on the rules committee, and don’t expect any opposition from the Knights coach. While he won’t say anything publicly, Newcastle, as a club, have already made their position perfectly clear.

When Greenberg said this week the game would not be rushed into making changes “without facts and data in front of us”, we had to wonder what “facts” and “data” he was ­referring to.

News_Image_File: Only one of these tackles ended in serious injury, more by luck than anything else.

We have illustrated above seven dangerous lifting tackles from this season.

Only one ended in serious injury.

But you tell me, would you want your son on the wrong end of any of these tackles?

On the same day Alex McKinnon was transferred from Melbourne to Sydney to continue his recovery from devastating spinal injuries, the NRL match review committee allowed Gold Coast’s Beau Falloon and St George Illawarra’s Joel Thompson to escape punishment for tackles that looked horrifyingly similar to the one that ended in a seven-match ban to Jordan McLean. No wonder Melbourne were seeking “clarification” this week.

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It was only luck Falloon’s tackle on Will Chambers didn’t end in disaster. It was ugly, and it was dangerous.

As for Thompson’s involvement in the tackle that sent Greg Inglis crashing into the turf, the Dragons forward admitted on Twitter that he put his hand between the Souths fullback’s leg to put him off balance.

Very disappointing loss last night. I was only trying to pull G.i's leg out to unbalance him not put him in a dangerous position #redv

— Joel Thompson (@joel_thompson12) April 5, 2014

Here is the problem with that admission: when lifting and tipping tackles are allowed to unbalance an opponent, with a hand between the legs, it is only good fortune that determines if a player is injured because it’s too easy for defenders to lose control.

The Thompson tackle was almost identical to the tackle that ended McKinnon’s career, with three St George Illawarra players involved, as was the case in the McKinnon tackle. Only luck averted another tragedy.

News_Rich_Media: South Sydney forward Ben Te'o says he fully supports the NRL's measures to improve player safety, especially their crackdown on lifting tackles.

I attempted to contact Greenberg on Monday to ask why these tackles went unpunished, but he did not ­answer calls.

I was then emailed “quotes” attributed to match review committee chairman Michael Buettner.

The “quotes” did Buettner no favours, and they also cast a worrying light on restrictions facing our match review panel.

Buettner basically said the reason Falloon and Thompson weren’t charged was because “the head or neck” of the ball carrier was not likely to be the first point of contact with the ground.

News_Rich_Media: Jack De Belin, Braith Anasta and Dayne Weston will be suspended for one week following early guilty pleas, while the Dragon's Jason Nightingale escapes a penalty

This is madness.

But this is also the rule that they have to govern under, as they are today.

The match review panel is being pushed into a corner on this lack of consistency because the rule is ridiculous. And they tell us this is how it will probably stay until next year.

NRL WON’T RUSH TO BAN LIFTING TACKLES

Leading sports physician Peter Larkins told me last week that other sports can’t believe some of the dangers we allow in our game, and he said that the NRL was seen to be dragging the chain when it came to player safety by rival sports.

Larkins said he could not understand why there wasn’t a ban on all lifting tackles.

But Greenberg and the game continue to find excuses for inaction.

The NRL can change this rule­­­ ­tomorrow.

Let’s hope they don’t leave it until after the next injury.

News_Rich_Media: The Daily Telegraph’s Dean Ritchie is reporting banned NRL coach Shane Flanagan will join Salford next week to begin a three-month consultancy role with the English Super League club.

IF a player can’t play during a suspension, how can a coach?

Forget if you think Shane Flanagan is guilty or innocent of any involvement in the Sharks’ 2011 supplement program, the fact is he has been stood down by the NRL and as such he should not be permitted to go and work for Salford.

Just like he should not have been allowed to recently renegotiate his new three-year deal with Cronulla.

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Flanagan was stood down until the end of the year and to have no direct or indirect involvement in the club.

But after extending his contract at Cronulla, now he is off to take up a three-month contract in the Super League before he returns home to coach the Sharks at the end of the year.

Ban? What ban?

I understand this goes beyond the NRL’s jurisdiction but surely Australia has enough pull in the international game to save itself from becoming the laughing stock.

Obviously not.

News_Image_File: Blocker Roach says Leichhardt Oval should be redeveloped to keep crowds coming back.

STEVE Roach makes no apologies for the fact he’s old school — and for big “Blocker” nothing beats an afternoon watching the Tigers at Leichhardt Oval.

Still, while Roach hangs onto the past he made a good point this week about the future when he put this question to the game’s bosses:

“Why don’t the league put some money into Leichhardt Oval, they’ve got a billion dollars or whatever it is,” Roach asked.

“Why don’t they say, well, here’s some money, do the joint up and pay it back.

“I reckon last Sunday was a great lesson for the league.

“I know the game has gone all corporate and that sort of stuff but that is what footy is.

News_Rich_Media: The Tigers have cruised to a stunning 16-point win over NRL heavyweights Manly at Leichardt Oval.

“It’s the whole experience of the day.

“Sitting on the hill, seeing the fans walk into the ground wearing their Tigers jumpers and afterwards walking back to the pubs and just having a great time.

“That’s what people really want.

“I don’t know, what do they do with their money? They have to do something to help these clubs because they are the ones who enable the league to get these big sponsorships.”

So why can’t it happen?

It’s because, they keep telling us, we need bigger crowds, that’s why we have to play at the bigger stadiums.

Someone said to me this week if we continue to do what we have always done our rugby league crowds will never grow.

News_Image_File: Sea Eagles fans get into the spirit at Leichhardt Oval.

Yet they have been playing footy at Allianz Stadium now for more than 25 years, and for 15 years at ANZ Stadium.

Only 12,854 turned up at Allianz to watch the Roosters up against the Bulldogs last Friday night.

There was just over 12,000 the week before for the grand final rematch. Then on Sunday, in pouring rain, 16,311 were at Leichhardt.

And you can bet it will be a similar atmosphere at Brookvale this Sunday when the Sea Eagles take on the Sharks.

Like Blocker says, rugby League fans love their traditional suburban grounds. It’s just a shame the game can’t recognise what the fans want.

News_Rich_Media: Steve Turner breaks down the Roosters loss to Canterbury-Bankstown stating Sonny Bill Williams' return from injury wasn't an easy one

SONNY Bill Williams will play his 100th NRL game on Saturday against Parramatta. Ironically, the code-hopping Kiwi’s debut was also against the Eels back in 2004 when he played in the centres opposing Jamie Lyon.

You might remember it was after that game Lyon fled the NRL for England via Wee Waa, while almost everyone predicted the-then rookie Bulldog would one day become the game’s best player. But who could have imagined it would take this long for him to knock up his century.

News_Image_File: South Sydney's Nathan Merritt needs just one try to become South Sydney’s greatest.

ONE of the game’s nicest blokes, Nathan Merritt could do with a change of luck. Since playing Origin last year the Rabbitohs flyer has only scored four tries all up — and Merritt has been sitting level with Benny Wearing on 144 tries since the end of last year.

He has now gone five games without scoring and all he needs is one lousy try to become South Sydney’s greatest ever tryscorer. The good news is he’s getting closer. In his past two games Merritt has got over the line only to have history turned away. Hopefully the long wait ends tonight.