Urgent NRL talks to stamp out crusher tackles
THE NRL has vowed to crackdown on the sickening trend of crusher tackles with pumped up suspensions set to be introduced as soon as this week.
NRL chief executive Todd Greenberg and head of football Graham Annesley held talks yesterday and the issue will now come to a head at a meeting of the NRL Competition Committee today. It follows a spate of dangerous crusher tackles over the weekend that led rugby league great and now commentator Greg Alexander to raise fears that someone would end up with a broken neck.
Cronulla’s Andrew Fifita and Newcastle’s Mitch Barnett were charged for ugly incidents over the weekend while Canberra’s John Bateman astonishingly escaped punishment.
The fact that no one was sent off or even sin-binned only raised more concern.
Former leading referee Greg McCallum said he would have sent Barnett straight off for his crusher on Melbourne fullback Jahrome Hughes.
Barnett now faces a threeto-five match ban while Fifita faces a two-to-three match suspension. Alexander suggested a 10-match ban for intentional crusher tackles would be the best way to eliminate the dangerous trend.
Asked if he believed Barnett’s tackle warranted a sendoff, McCallum didn’t hesitate: “In my era you sent players off so that would have been one where a player would have been sent off.
“These days there just seems to be a reluctance to do it (send a player off).
“Apart from a spear tackle or a dangerous throw, these crusher tackles are the worst thing that can happen but there just seems to be this attitude amongst some players that you can do what you like.”
The Competition Committee includes Mal Meninga, Darren Lockyer, Paul Green, Ivan Cleary and John Lang.