‘Beyond a joke’: Phil Gould erupts as glaring statistic shows NRL’s high tackle crackdown has gone too far

Bulldogs supremo Phil Gould has unleashed on the NRL amid fears the 2021 Magic Round disaster could be repeated.

Rugby league legends have slammed “farcical” scenes over the weekend that saw a whopping 18 players sent to the sin bin in round eight and sparked fears the 2021 Magic Round disaster could be about to repeat itself.

Just days out from Magic Round, which was marred in 2021 by a shocking crackdown that resulted in players being sent from the field for minor contact with the head, the issue is again creating widespread concern.

Player safety is at the heart of everything the NRL is trying to achieve with this tougher stance, but fans want to see some common sense shown with games seriously impacted by bunker intervention for innocuous incidents that went unnoticed in previous sets.

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Sin bins this year have increased by a staggering 141 per cent from 22 to 53 in eight rounds while players placed on report have risen 73 per cent from 83 to 144 highlighting just how far the NRL has gone overboard.

It has led to Bulldogs supremo Phil Gould saying the high tackle crackdown must be stopped before it ruins the game.

“There was probably three times as many penalties as well, they were very stop-start all weekend,” Gould told Nine’s Today.

“I’m not sure what they are trying to achieve and whether they’ve achieved their objective.

“We have got Magic Round this weekend, I hope they get it all sorted out before we go and put the game on display to the entire world.

“It’s frustrating.”

His comments come after Andrew Johns unleashed a verbal tirade at the NRL amid the “farcical” scenes over the weekend.

“The breakdown of this sending players to the bin is absolutely farcical,” Johns said on the Sunday Footy Show.

You can watch Andrew Johns’ blow up in the player above.

Phil Gould has slammed the NRL's high tackle crackdown. Image: Getty

“It’s gone beyond a joke. It is embarrassing. The over-analysis and the overreach of the bunker in play … the bunker should be used only for try-scoring opportunities unless it’s a send-off.

“It’s an out-and-out send-off and they miss it, then fair enough, come in and send the player off.

“Going back eight plays in a set of six where the referee doesn’t see it, the touch judges don’t see it, the players don’t see it and to send someone to the bin is absolutely farcical.”

Broncos legend Corey Parker was equally concerned with the inconsistency from the video referee, with the former representative forward stunned Bulldogs enforcer Sitili Tupouniua was allowed to stay on the field for lifting his knees in a tackle.

Tupouniua was penalised at the time and was charged twice, with the knee lift set to cost him two weeks on the sidelines on top of the three matches he’ll serve for a shoulder charge.

“There’s an intent to lift his knee and there is absolute force, and he hits Piakura,” Parker said on SEN.

Sin bins this year have increased by a staggering 141 per cent from 22 to 53 in eight rounds (Photo by Cameron Spencer/Getty Images)

“The referees make a decision that that’s not OK and we’ll give a penalty to the Broncos and take the ball off you.

“If they (the NRL) are fair dinkum and you have a bunker … then that there is a send-off every day of the week.

“Whether you agree with it or not, the intent to lift your knee and to hit someone in the head is not OK.”

Parker said the lack of action in that instance compared to other sin bins for minor offences over the weekend was impossible for parents to explain to their children.

“Right then and there, they didn’t do a thing so Sitili Tupouniua stayed on the field,” he said.

“Further on, he gets charged with a grade two contrary contact charge after the game, but nothing was done (on the field).

“If that hit him in the jaw or the side of the temple, for example, then we’re talking about a completely different story.

“Yet we see from the NRL when someone grazes the nose of somebody that he’s spending 10 in the bin.

“It just does not add up.

“If you’re sitting there as a father and you’ve got a couple of kids alongside you and they see player A leave the field for a high shot and you explain to your children that it’s not OK and they’re trying to stamp it out.

“And then you see Sitili Tupouniua raise the knee which is a terrible act and he stays on the field. If your kids ask why he stays on the field, you’ve got absolutely no answer.

“It’s a real challenge for the NRL at the moment, and they need to make a stance.”

Originally published as ‘Beyond a joke’: Phil Gould erupts as glaring statistic shows NRL’s high tackle crackdown has gone too far