THE NRL is poised to up the ante in its war on the grapple tackle, promising more significant suspensions for serious offences, although the system that robbed Melbourne hooker Cameron Smith of a grand final is set to be scrapped at the same time.
It will be no consolation to Smith that under radical changes to the judiciary, proposed at yesterday's NRL annual football conference, his situation - suspended after a low-grade grapple tackle offence due to carry-over points from an early-season game - will be avoided in future.
The current carry-over points system is likely to be altered so that points will be taken off for each match that a player takes part in and is not charged by the match review committee.
Other notable topics discussed during the six-hour think-tank, which involved current and former players and coaches, administrators and members of the media, included:
- The move towards two referees for next season was all but given the green light;
- The power of the video referees is likely to be diluted, with the officials unlikely to be able to rule on strips, although their powers through foul play should remain;
- A radical suggestion to scrap scrums in favour of tap restarts was knocked on the head.
The grapple tackle, predictably, caused significant debate, although there was widespread support (81 per cent of the room) for the referees and the judiciary to take stronger action.
The room was shown six examples of grade-one offences, some of which, including a tackle by Gold Coast five-eighth Mat Rogers, were deemed to have warranted higher suspensions.
As the NRL did with dangerous throws, the number of points given to a player for a grade-one offence, the lowest-grade charge, would drop, while the points for higher-grade tackles would spike.
"If these sorts of things are repeated, there'd be some hefty suspensions," match review committee chairman Greg McCallum said of the video package. "Quite clearly, the bar has changed. When the grapple tackle came in, it was a delaying tactic, and the view of the match review committee at the time was that it was a minor issue.
"But it's developed into something more serious, with concerns for player safety. The grapples we've seen over the last 12 months are different to the original grapples."
McCallum's match review committee studied 350 incidents involving potential grapple-type tackles last season, however the group laid just 13 charges. Three of them came in round one, however there was a distinct drop-off - just one more offence was deemed worthy of a charge up until round 21.
"At this stage I'm fed up with it and the game's fed up with it," referees boss Robert Finch said. "There was a clear directive today to lift the ante against the grapple. I think there is a need for more penalties and the use of the sin bin during games."
Sydney Roosters coach Brad Fittler said: "The malice side of things, ripping blokes' necks c anytime you go to extra lengths to hurt someone to slow the play-the-ball down is real negative."
The idea of falling carry-over points came out of a judiciary review held on Wednesday, which had itself come from a suggestion by a talkback radio caller.
"It sounds like a very sensible idea, the principle being that as you play games and keep your nose clean you work off the carry-over points on a per-game basis," NRL boss David Gallop said.
"It means someone who has carry-over points from early in the season can work them off completely by the end of the season."
Smith's suspension for the preliminary final and the grand final came about because of 93 carry-over points from a round-one offence, something that Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens described as "innocuous".
The dual referee system, one policing the ruck and the other the 10 metres, appears a formality after significant support (58 per cent), despite Sheens's calls for it to be trialled in next year's Toyota Cup competition.
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