The NRL must not surrender in the fight against the scourge of wrestling
The time has come for the NRL to pull out all the stops when it comes to stopping teams from slowing down the play the ball - even if that includes warning, fines or a loss of competition points.
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Few former players were as loveable as Noel Kelly.
Hit a man on the nose, he becomes your friend for life.
His post-career charm was his ability to laugh and to make you laugh, which was even more important, and which were not the qualities which initially identified him as a player.
Since Ned passed on Sunday, his big heart finally asking for a rest, he has been celebrated as one of the toughest that ever played the game.
The testament to that, which must be said with a wink, is that he played 111 games for Western Suburbs and got sent off in 17 of them, averaging a send-off inside every seven games.
Ned was not just from another era, but every era. He watched the modern game and his criticisms were as valid now, because they came from a solid set of values, as when he played.
The game should honour its greats.
Ned was considered good enough to be included in the Team of the Century announced in the game’s centenary, 2008.
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Among the tributes to Ned this week Fox Sports has shown, on heavy rotation, a half-hour show where Ned discussed his career and, among the stories he tells, he talks about how the referee in those days often gave both sides 10 minutes free reign to sort each other out and then, following that, the ref would instruct them the softening up period was over and it was now time to get on with the game.
Gamesmanship has always been a part of rugby league.
Early softening up periods, second-row feeds in the scrum, players taking dives, faking injury, sneaking off-side, holding players down, cheeky hair pulls, the odd brawl … the game was full of them.
But times change.
When rugby league entered the colour television era league bosses realised how violent the game looked on television and they also realised they were pictures you could not take into family homes.
It could no longer continue.
So Jim Comans was hired to run the judiciary and players were warned Mr Comans would carry a heavy hand. His edict was to clean up the game.
The game is in a similar place now.
The rule changes introduced since the COVID-19 pandemic have received almost unanimous praise, opening up the game and making it more free-flowing. The footy is faster, the fatigue it produces has reintroduced another element, it is aesthetically more pleasing.
Players prefer it, fans love it.
But three weeks in teams have worked out the referees and are already finding new, cynical ways to slow down the game.
The referees are frustrated by it after last weekend, and feeling slightly helpless.
Was that hand on the ball deliberate? Or did the defender accidentally brush against it while extracting from the tackle?
NRL head of football Graham Annesley moved to stop it.
An email, threatening the sin bin if teams “persist pushing the limits on what, in some cases, may be viewed as bordering on professional fouls” was sent to the clubs.
Every well-coached player, in a moment of quiet honesty, will admit to the work his team is putting in to slow down the ruck.
It is not unique to any team, although some are better than others.
But the NRL’s issue is that fans, overwhelmingly, hate it.
Annesley’s email was a strong, positive mood.
Like players now assessed by the match review committee, the time has come for the game to adjudicate on cynical, deliberate spoiling tactics that go beyond mere gamesmanship.
Nobody has ever walked out of a ground, turned off their television after a game, and said they wished they saw more wrestling. Or slower play-the-balls. Or more players tangled up at the ruck.
Yet those tactics continue to dominate, and detract, from the game.
Warnings, fines and then a loss of competition points would force coaches to adhere to the rules and a code of conduct that encourages open play, whether they like it or not.
Under video analysis the odd foul, under the cloak of gamesmanship, would be rendered acceptable but cynical, systematic cheating, because “they are all doing it”, would be determined as diminishing the product and the consequences severe.
There is little use carrying a soft stick. Coaches will call the bluff.
But like when the Comans era ushered in a new era for the game, with heavy punishments, the NRL has a chance to kickstart a new revolution in the game.
The coaches have been given their chance.
The fightback has begun.