Another rule that's giving me the irrits is the head injury assessment..
After Tapine got clocked by Packer he stayed on the field for 2 sets of 6 Canberra had the ball...Wests Tigers then got the ball and were getting a bit of a roll on ..On the 4th tackle of a set around half way after some good runs the ref stops play citing the trainer has called for a HIA and Tapine leaves the field..any momentum destroyed..
Happens every game and shits me big time
Agreed ..every team uses it...some better than others...should be at the time that it occurs..if the trainer deems the player right to go and then later after the review says he needs to come off..play shouldn't be stopped as there is no danger at that time..
They have to stop play, they don't get a choice. Same with an injury in the back-field, if the trainer calls it serious then they need to halt play as duty of care.
However one of two things should happen:
(1) trainer calls get reviewed every week and teams get penalised for illegal or bogus or dodgy stop-play calls, on review. You'll know where in context it happens, whether or not the match medic called for the player to HIA or whether the player is indeed injured after the match.
(2) if play is stopped to remove an injured played in defence, the attacking side should get another tackle to compensate. This way you aren't disadvantaged and refs can stop play as called to.
That’s just complicating and already farcical system
When a players cops a head knock that’s it ..he’s off ..on the spot .
Why is it complicated? Post-match review can be done at head office, with results published on NRL.com. They already were reviewing HIAs and fining clubs who didn't pull their players off, until they brought in the sideline medic.
Extra tackle just means if a player goes down in defence and trainer calls to ref, the current tackle is nullified. It's like in soccer when you put the ball into touch if a player is down, then the opposition throws it back in to you as compensation.
Your idea that any player with a head knock goes off - how do you assess that? How do you confirm whether or not he took a knock to the head? The answer is only via a trainer or the sideline doc, which means you still have to have an on-field assessment.