“It's very simple, he (Asofa-Solomona) runs from distance, touches his player and Jenko (Roosters player Michael Jennings) and his player scores. Did it add weight to the work? Yes, he did.”
Even rule changes from years ago challenge players. In an earlier Storm match, captain Harry Grant, watching a Warriors player to his left in a ball game, deliberately passed him the ball from dummy half, believing Melbourne would win a penalty because the opposing player was offside.
Harry Grant talks to referee Ashley Klein.Credit: Getty
Instead, Grant was immediately sanctioned. He asked the referee, who quickly cited a rule change that says it is an offense to deliberately pass the ball to a defending player in the ruck. Grant asked “since when?” and was told it was a 2018 rule change, prompted by Grant's predecessor Cameron Smith persistently doing it. In fact, Smith was following another whore, Michael Ennis, who popularized the practice. So even six-year rule changes take time to register with the smartest players.
It becomes doubly difficult when a rule change is widely announced by the NRL and basically ignored.
Before the start of the 2024 season, the NRL enacted two other rules that would be strictly enforced: the “centre” rule and pulling the tackled player's leg.
However, the initial crackdown seems to have been relaxed.
One player, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his club did not allow him to discuss refereeing decisions, said: “The strangest thing is the lifting of one leg in the tackles. He was penalized in the first three or four rounds and now it's not looking. Confused.”
The NRL's own data backs this up, with six penalties for leg lifts in the first three rounds, a figure halved over the next four rounds. HQ also report two downtown penalties in the first two rounds, zero for the next four rounds before another two in Round 7. Champion Data groups downtown penalties under “offsides,” reporting – 13 so far.
NRL head of football Graham Annesley argues we should compare breaches to 2023. “The level of compliance with the center rule compared to last year is chalk and cheese,” he said.
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“Disruptors are the big issue at the moment,” he added, referring to the try-clincher in the Roosters v Storm match where Melbourne's Reimis Smith was charged with preventing Connor Watson from picking up a high ball. A review indicated that it was Smith who had been prevented from jumping higher when he contested the ball.
Annesley's focus is on disruptors that interfere with high kick receivers, including “scouts” that protect the receiver.
However, there is another form of disruption, which the Panthers pioneered and other clubs, such as the Roosters and Broncos, have followed. It occurs in what is called the “transition period” from defense to attack. The team kicking the ball from a last-inning snap sometimes obstructs the chasers, pushing them out of their way and thus allowing their fullback to run into a gap.
Touch judges have the responsibility of overseeing play backwards, but are often too committed to following the throw.
These violations are not recorded either. Champion Data points out that no statistical agency collects cases of illegality that do not lead to a sanction.
If umpires penalized every offense on an NRL ground, rugby league would be rugby union.
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