Wade Graham Origin debacle shows its time for an NRL judiciary rethink

IT seems like an annual storyline. Last year it was Greg Bird. The year before Anthony Watmough. Now it’s Wade Graham. The system must change, writes PAUL KENT.

IT seems like an annual storyline. One we should clip and paste with a small disclaimer at the bottom: only the names and dates have been changed.

Today it belongs to Wade Graham.

Last year it belonged to Greg Bird in Origin III. The year before it was Anthony Watmough in Origin II.

Wade Graham after a high tackle on Johnathan Thurston during the Cronulla Sharks v North Queensland Cowboys NRL round 14 game at Shark Park, Cronulla. pic Mark Evans

Then Issac Luke in the 2014 grand final.

Before that it was Cameron Smith in the 2008 grand final. Carl Webb in 2005. Luke Ricketson in the 2004.

And on it goes. Big games, small offences.

Graham will go the judiciary and try to fight a charge he has next to no chance of beating.

He was caught off balance and he slung out an arm and it caught Johnathan Thurston on the arm and slid up and high and coat-hangered him to the ground.

All the judiciary need to prove is that contact was high.

It was. Guilty.

It is tough not to feel for Graham. He was in at Fox Sports last week and the news was out that Boyd Cordner was unavailable and Graham was in the mix.

NSW coach Laurie Daley had three genuine options.

The first was to slip Graham straight into the left edge position that Cordner vacated.

The second was to put Greg Bird on the left edge and promote Tyson Frizell to the bench and who remembers the third.

Graham must have been congratulated a dozen times for being about to get the call-up and each time he talked it down, having come too close too many times to consider this one done.

But then it was. And then it wasn’t.

Wade Graham of the Sharks helps up the Cowboys' Johnathan Thurston during the Cronulla Sharks v North Queensland Cowboys NRL round 14 game at Shark Park, Cronulla. pic Mark Evans

Graham’s problem is carry over points earned in week two of last season’s finals when he hit Justin O’Neill high and copped an early plea to a grade two careless high tackle.

The base penalty of 125 points was reduced to 93 points after the 25 per cent discount for an early plea.

Every game Graham has played since then has worked off five points, a dozen games, which left him with 33 carried over.

With loading for a prior offence, a discount for an early plea, a degree in mathematics to work it out and time off for good behaviour Graham will accumulate 117 points and miss Origin.

So he has to fight it.

The system must change. The NRL is not above doing it.

They introduced the weekly, five-point reduction after Smith took an early plea in 2008 and was left with 93 carry-over points that hung around all season until the week before the grand final when he got charged again.

Suddenly, copping the early plea so he would be available in round two did not look so smart.

There was enough uproar that the five-point discount was introduced and most moved along happily.

Unfortunately, nothing was done to address the “careless” element of the charge.

By definition, careless indicates no intent. Careless more often occurs because fatigue has set in or the ground is slippery underneath or some other innocuous happening.

Wade Graham at Coffs Harbour airport after arriving with the NSW Blues Origin team . Picture : Gregg Porteous

There are 400 players in the NRL today and only 34, or less than 10 per cent, have earned the right to play Origin next Wednesday.

The penalty to miss an Origin game should require more points than the standard 100 to be suspended for a club game.

The same with grand finals, played just once among 201 NRL games in a season.

At the urging of coaches the NRL is already considering implementing a fine system for the lower end penalties like the one that will cost Graham his Origin debut.

It should have happened long ago.

Originally published as Wade Graham Origin debacle shows its time for an NRL judiciary rethink