Coaches told to end play-acting
THE rising cases of play-acting within rugby league was discussed in the Super League coaches meeting with calls to stamp out simulation.
The Examiner’s sister site Rugby League Live understands a number of coaches asked for proposals to be drawn up to eradicate incidents where players are laying on the floor looking for penalties or for players to be sent from the field.
Both Robert Hicks, the RFL’s head of legal and operation and current referee, as well as head of match officials Steve Ganson, discussed the matter with coaches and asked them to help clean up the issue.
It was also noted how players are going to ground when their team concedes a dropout to buy time before defending another set.
The issue is a tricky one for the match officials, who are not in a position to determine whether or not a player is legitimately injured.
However, it was accepted on the call that the matter is becoming a problem and an eye-sore, especially in TV games.
It was suggested sanctions could be imposed if the matter doesn’t resolve itself, which would include players having to leave the field for a period of time if they require treatment but are ultimately fit to continue, similar to the methods used in football.
It was said the matter would be looked at next month to assess if it had been resolved by the coaches, and if not, changes would be considered.
One change that has already been introduced is that video referees will not advise on-field officials to give a penalty. Instead, they will only advise if they deem an incident worthy of a sin bin or red card. It’s hoped that will put players off staying down and forcing further stoppages.
There are concerns video referees are not in a position to make an informed judgement on an incident as they only have camera angles made available to them that are shown by the broadcasters live on TV.
However, a number of coaches said the video referee should not be making decisions on offences if they do not have all the evidence in front of them that they require.
The issue, on the flip side, is that obvious instances that had been missed on-field would then go unpunished if the video referee could not intervene.
As a result, referees and video referees have been encouraged to ‘downgrade’ punishments to help strike a balance.
As an example, if a referee is unsure if an offence is worth a yellow card, they will just issue a penalty.
Officials have also been told to only sin bin players if they deem the offence to be a chargeable one, unless it is for a professional foul.
So far this year, four sin bins have not resulted in a charge. Mahe Fonua, Jermaine McGillvary, Danny Levi and Mitchell Pearce have all received yellow cards and not received a suspension from the Match Review Panel.
It was clarified that ‘front on’ collisions would be given more leniency compared to tackles in the back, on the basis the tackle wasn’t late or high.