NRL boss dismisses crackdown, but admits mistakes were made

NRL chief executive officer (CEO) Andrew Abdo has responded to the fallout from round eight’s dramatic sin-bin extravaganza, which has left fans, commentators and players frustrated with the direction of the game.

A total of 18 players were sin-binned throughout the ANZAC round of footy, many under contentious circumstances.

The backlash has been felt in right in heart of the NRL, with high-profile figures like Andrew Johns openly criticising the current officiating standards.

‘It’s not rugby league’

The eighth immortal Andrew Johns didn’t hold back in his criticism this weekend, even walking out of the commentary booth following another controversial sin-binning during the Wests Tigers and Cronulla Sharks game when Tigers prop Fonua Pole was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle on Cronulla’s Tom Hazelton in the 64th minute.

Speaking on 100% Footy on Channel Nine, Johns said: “At the end of the day I’ve played the game and I work in the game, but I’m still a fan.”

“And I sat at home on Saturday night and watching this ‘farce’ as I called it, and it’s just not the game I feel in love with and still am in love with.”

“It was a foreign game the last two weeks.”

“It didn’t resemble rugby league, so I thought I had to say what I thought and I’m glad there is some reaction,” Johns told Abdo on Monday.

‘Too many sin-bins’

Abdo acknowledged the frustration that poured in from fans as well as the former Australian captain, Johns, and admitted that the number of sin-binning’s was excessive.

“Obviously we were disappointed with the talking point being around sin-bins and head high tackles, and that’s not what we want to see.”

“There were far too many sin-binnings for our liking.

“It’s a complicated matter as we’ve seen a rapid increase in the number of head high tackles this season — more so with some clubs than others.

“And more so with some players than others.

“Obviously, we have seen some frustration with fans, and you heard Joey [Johns] voice his frustration there, which we completely understand and get.

“We’re not tone deaf to that.

“And we acknowledge that there were some errors this weekend — errors in the application — and there were some sin bins that shouldn’t have been sin bins and perhaps there were a couple that should have been sin bins.

“We need to get that right, and we will work on that.

“That feedback will go back to the referees.”

Abdo also responded to criticism about the bunker’s involvement in live play.

“Certainly the feedback around the bunker intervention – I think that we’ve heard that loud and clear.”

“That’s actually meant for really serious or significant foul play, and I think that bar has been too low, and you’ll see that adjusted moving forwards.”

‘A Line in the Sand?’

Johns asked Abdo directly whether this was a turning point for the way the game is being officiated.

“So, Andrew you’re saying at the moment… this is a line in the sand, the reach of the bunker will stop from now on in general play?”

Abdo said the overall policy hadn’t changed, but the application would be corrected.

“The policy and commission has been pretty consistent with this for the last couple of years.”

“The bunker is not meant to intervene unless it’s serious or significant matters of foul play, and that is going to be reinforced in the communication going forward.”

“We don’t want to see a couple of tackles later pulled back for something we don’t believe is a sin bin — it’s gotta be pretty significant and pretty serious.”

NRL vows to not back down

Legendary NRL forward turned professional boxer Paul Gallen raised the idea of involving former players to help define what’s fair around high contact.

Gallen asked whether the NRL had considered getting a room full of ex-players and experts together to find the best way forward.

Abdo said the NRL conducts end-of-season reviews and listens to various stakeholders, but stressed the league won’t back down on protecting player safety.

“I think we all agree on this.”

“It’s important the policy around protecting players from direct, high impact, significant force with no mitigation.”

“Those will continue to be penalised and will be continued to be sin binned.”

“Unfortunately, we’ve seen a few instances where that wasn’t the case, and we’re going to rectify that.”

Consistency is still a challenge

Abdo said the rule itself hasn’t changed — only the need to better define where the bar is set.

“For decades it’s been illegal to hit players in the head, and to have high tackles.”

“And we’ve been sin-binning and sending off players for decades.”

“What we are trying to get right now is refining what that bar is and getting that balance right.”

“What we are seeing is some players are adapting their game very effectively.”

“You know some of the teams have not had a single sin bin for a head high shot in eight rounds.”

“We’ve had some teams only give away three penalties for head high tackles, and some teams as high as 19… And it shows that some are able to adapt to this.”

He said referees must also do their part.

“The referees too are required to play their part; in what he called a team effort to solve the issues.”

Abdo reiterated there had been no directive issued to crack down – a term he refused even mutter.

“Abdo says no directive was given for head high crack down.”

“We’ve been consistent. I think it’s not as simple as that [lowering the tackle target], because we know that tackling technique is complicated — and different ways of defending in different situations — but of course, we want the duty of care there, we want the ability to avoid direct forceful contact to the head wherever possible.”

Are league fans becoming the victims of politics

Former Broncos and Warriors winger Denan Kemp added to the debate on his Bloke in a Bar podcast arguing that it’s the fan experience which is suffering due to inconsistent calls and frequent bunker interruptions.

“Are we offering the product we promised the fans if we continue to go down this path?” said Kemp.

“I don’t think we are.”

“And they spend their hard-earned cash every week, in a cost-of-living crisis.”

“We got all these records, and we like to talk about how great we are as a game and yet are we respecting the fans by sending blokes to the bin willy-nilly like it’s nothing when they’re the ones making all these records happen?” he said.

No solutions

Like Gallen, Kemp also called on the NRL to offer practical guidance to clubs.

“If you say there is a problem, you should also offer a solution.”

“And I’m yet to see the NRL go to clubs and say ‘We’ve actually looked at a lot of technique and this is actually the safest technique to tackle with.'”

“That’s where I get frustrated,” said Kemp.