April 29, 2025 • 40 mins
D'Arcy Waldegrave returned to wrap another day of sports news! Highlights for tonight include:
Bill Harrigan - Former NRL Ref Boss - On the big crackdown on head knocks.
Slade Griffin - Warriors Assistant Coach - On their unchanged side to play the Cowboys.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Darcy Waldegrave
from News Talk zed B.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Why Hello there, welcome into sports Talk. Thanks for your time.
My name is Darcy watergrav In here through tail eight
o'clocks and I over talking sport. Honey. That rubber league
is our focus of an evening both ends of the program.
We're bookending the rugby League chat with rugby league people.
(00:53):
Slack Griffin one he's on Warrior's assistant coach, joins us
toward the end of the show Unchained Squad to play
the cow me in and magic around. Talk to him
about that, and of course the the drama around send
us in the NRL. Every man's getting sand off people
in the concession stands on report how you go, and
(01:17):
we'll start off the show with that as well. Bill Harrigan,
former head of NRL, referring he's a Hall of Famer,
one of the best to ever try and blow the
p out of a whistle. He joins us to look
at the eighteen send us for last weekends around where
did that come from? Why are they doing it? Is
it working? And then we'll hand the same talk to
(01:40):
you on eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. We can
text nineteen ninety two that is z B z B
like they killing the game? Is this really dragging the
game down to its knees because someone's kneeds can take
a high shot and then it's on report. Couldn't help
myself anyway, Bill Harrigan around the corner. You're up after that,
and then sleigh at Griffin. But before we go anywhere
(02:02):
near that, let's get nice and close to this sor
today and a sport today. Last task Master Andrew Webster
is content with his team's record around high tackles has
been a the least penalized team in that space in
the NRL just three infractions.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Don't get me wrong. We traditionally hid high to wrap
the football up before we need to, but we do
having in our power not to drive horse sholden into
the players had and I think we've had a couple
of slipping ones like Rocko got suspended when he slept
on the ground, but you couldn't prove to the judiciary
that he didn't hit him in the head, so you
got to cop that one.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Marata definitely hit him in the head.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
That was last week.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Any Who, I've been serious. He's a good human and
a cricketer. He's essued the contract based at T twenty
franchise trap like most other New Zealanders. Instead, he's off
to Britain to play county cricket.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
I've always wanted to play some county cricket and experience
what it was like. And yeah, I didn't get a
chance to play reball last year in the Plunket Shield
at all really, so I do enjoy reball and so
it was cool just to get over here, and so yeah,
it's just a chance to come over, get better at
bowling and just get stuck up.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Ye's a lot of cricket in a short amount of
time and you are a fast bowler. Not sure it's
the smartest thing you've done, so be it. Joe Parker's managed,
David Hagen, says his team prefer to stay active, although
they're they're aware of the possibility of Joe fighting for
multiple belts later in the year after the just announced
(03:26):
oh second Dubois punch up.
Speaker 6 (03:28):
Our team have discussed it and we prefer keeping busy
and having a fight inter them. But I think Joe
sataka would be the front runner for the winner of
Dubro se Ave New Zealand are potentially fighting for the
undisputed heavyweight will title as soon as the end of
this year, and in the.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
NBA playoffs, sculls that Warrior has beat the Houston Rockets today,
leaving Steven Adams' team in playoffs stripe. Jimmy Butler knows
how tough as Warriors are.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
I always say that we got the most competent guys.
Anybody can win the ball in a basket, But.
Speaker 7 (03:58):
More than anything, we're locking in on the deep business
side of the ball with kayhard.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
When we live it on turnovers, we're.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Hard to be damn.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
And that's the sport today, a lot like a fuffall
around the nature of penalties, of high shots, of dismissals
all in the NRL. Andrew Abdo, chief executive of the
National Rugby League, had this to say about that.
Speaker 7 (04:21):
Let me first say it hasn't been a correct time
at all. There's been no policy shift. It's been the game.
It's always been illegal to tackle high, and we've been
synpinning and penalizing high tackles for the game going back decades.
We've been really consistent around this. The last couple of years.
We're not going to apologize and take it backwards step
for protecting players from head high shots. However, what I
will say is that we've seen a couple of errors.
(04:43):
We've seen a couple of judgment calls that perhaps weren't correct,
and it was important to acknowledge that, takingcountability for that,
and we'll adjust and hopefully we'll see improvements now in
the weeks of follow.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
So you think that you go it wrong on the weekend, I.
Speaker 7 (04:55):
Think there were some calls that we're wrong and look
and we understand some of the frustration, particularly when the
bunker intervenes in play a number of plays down the track.
We can understand. While that's frustration with that, the bars
of that was always intended to be quite high. It
needs to be serious or significant file play for the
bunker the interven and to BN someone once the players
(05:16):
moved on. That's something that we want to work on
with the referees.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
It's Andrew Abdo. He is the chief executive of the
National Rugby League and talking about the issue around excessive
sendings off of bunker, reviews of on report and penalties.
We're joined by a former boss of the NRL, referees
Bill Harrigan, Good Evening, Bill, Good Evening, Gusie drama over
(05:40):
the weekend. In the NRL eighteen players sent to the
bin and round eight. A lot of them high tackles
the suggestions there's been a crackdown from upstairs. They're saying, no,
that's not the case. We're pretty consistent in what we do.
What's your read on what's happened?
Speaker 8 (05:56):
Bill, They're not being privy to any information that goes
on with the referee in that anymore. I don't know
if there was a crackdown set or whatever, but to
see a players sending right across the eight games, something
was said somewhere that they're going to do it, But
after watching it, I'm confused. I think a lot of
the people I've spoken to are all confused about what
(06:18):
is a high shot? When is it intentional or illegal?
And when was it an accident? And what are we
going to do about it? And I understand they've got
to keep the integrity of the game and the safety
of the players. We've also got to be remember, we've
got an entertainment out there, and you know, just some
of the I'm shaking my head eyes with some of
the decisions compared to some of the others that weren't
acted upon over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Consistency in applying a law like this, this is always
going to be problematic, like back in your day when
you're refereeing umpires. Referee sorry aren't built the same. They're
going to see different things. So it's actually quite a
fraught thing to lay down, isn't it It is?
Speaker 8 (06:55):
And I go back to way back, and I know
they've done it this year, and I applaud the NRL
for doing it this year and making the players play
the ball with their foot. It's a basic of our
game and I'm happy that they got stuck into that.
But we were given an instruction many many years ago,
I think just after the Super League started back in
well after the NRL first started back in the late
nineties early twos, that we had to get to play
(07:16):
the ball with a foot on it. And poor old
Stephen Clark ended up being a scapegoat because he was
the first game that weekend and he went out and
blew around about thirty penalties. So when he played it,
even just missed putting their foot or their studs on
the ball, or they end up copying a penalty, and
I know after that game there were quite a few
of us rang around and said, are we going to
do this? And so we decided that we weren't going
(07:39):
to do it as badantic as what he did, and
anyone that looked like they were touching the ball we
allowed to play on because we knew we still had
to keep an entertaining game, an empathy for the game,
and not have thirty penalties in a stop start game,
which is most people turn off after that. I understand
what they've done and where they're coming from, but with
eight referees across the board each weekend, I just find
(08:02):
it's probably they've found it very difficult to determine what
was to be PENALTI sinbind or placed on report.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Duty of care to the athletes is one thing, but
I suppose I shouldn't really make light of this, But
duty of care to the paying fans, the people paying
for the broadcast at some of their laundroom, and people
actually going to the games, it surely has to be
taken into account.
Speaker 8 (08:22):
I think they do, and I think I've heard the
NRLL this morning have said that they're going to take
the bunker out of the play by player, and I'm
happy with that. That's a really good thing that they
can do straight off. Different to last weekend is to
stay right. We will not be going back four or
five tackles when the bunker has seen something, stopping play,
(08:44):
going back and giving a penalty, putting a report, and
in some occasions sin binning them back. Then my opinion is,
if the referee doesn't see it, you play on and
you let the match review You've got in place to
do their job post the game, and if some player
has to be charged, well then they charge him. And
(09:05):
I know the the negative on that is where a
team will say, well, hang on, we would disadvantage because
nothing happened to that player during the game, But the
team that plays him next week gets the advantage out
of it because he's now got a week, two week,
three weeks suspension. Well that's just bad luck. That's the
way the game is. If the referee doesn't see it,
play on. If he sees it, he'll pull it up,
he'll penalize it, he'll send in it, or he'll put
(09:27):
it on a report. But at least he's doing it
and the continuity of the game stays there. He gets
an opportunity to let the game flow and referee that
game with the empathy that is required.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
They put someone on a report for an obvious shot
to their head, then they march them. Should they just
put them on report and carry on? There's that fine line,
I suppose between what the referee actually does and how
they reacts to what they see, because in some cases
it's extraordinarily obvious that a guy is targeting other bloke's
(09:58):
head with his shoulder and he should be worked but walked.
But when it's kind of in between, it's a little
hard for them to make that call.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
Yeah, I I still support the decision by the NRL
when they brought it in some years ago to say
we're going to add the ten minutes to it, because
there were sometimes when a player would be placed on report,
but the guy that he's actually HiT's been taken off
and have a head goes through the head. You know,
(10:27):
got to do that. Yeah, They've got to go through
those protocols, or he may not end up coming back
on because he's been whacked that hard and that crook
and the concussion. They don't let him back on and
so all it suffered is a bike being placed on report.
So I get what they said, and we're going to
cost you ten minutes, and usually that is the ten
minutes he's in there, and a guy might be going
under the head protocols in that same time, So I
(10:48):
get that. And it's also it's they do that so
that the start of the players. Well, if you do
go and you hit a bloke's head, you could end
up copping ten minutes in the bin and your team suffers.
So I get why they do that. But sometimes in
this last weekend, I did see some instances where they're
there were innocuous hits with a shoulder, end of the
(11:09):
head and he was end up placed on report and
sent to the bin. And then I've seen something similar
and nothing ended up happening, or it was just a
straight out penalty. And that's when I started thinking, well,
what is happening today? Where is the line in the sand?
What is acceptable, what's not? What's the sim bin what's not?
And I think that's what all fans are throwing your
hands up in the air after the last weekend saying, well,
(11:31):
we really don't know what's what now.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Bill, with the.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Focus of this and the focus on people changing athletes,
changing their tackle tech meat. Have you noticed from your
lounge room that there is more of an attention to
detail when it comes to tackling. The guys actually know
their head is not a good place, and in general
they don't they go to the guts, they go to
(11:59):
the chest, they go underneath it. Are you seeing that?
Speaker 8 (12:03):
Yeah, I'm seeing that. But we're still seeing a lot
of them because they're doing one, two, three in The
emphasis is not get the bloke on the ground anymore.
The emphasis is hold him up as long as we
can take him backwards. I hate this style of tackling.
I like when you watch back in the nineties and
the early two thousands an where there was a hit,
Let's get him on the ground as quick as we can.
And yes, they did test you back then by trying
(12:24):
to say, okay, can we turtle him, can we lay
on him a little bit longer, can we hold his
arm down? What can we do? But they were getting
him on the ground as quick as they could. These
days it's hit stick, second man in, hold him up more,
third man in. We're going to take him backwards and
then we'll put him on the ground and then we'll
peel off him and it takes for ages. Then I
don't like that style of tackling. I like to see
(12:45):
they're out of it. But while they're hitting and sticking,
and those first two guys are standing upright and they're
not going to the legs. When they hit one around
the belly and the chest, that's fine. But that other
man's coming in and he's actually gone up around the
top and his arm's deflecting off the other the ball
carrier's arm or the ball and just copping him with
a little flick under the chin. And we now, I
(13:06):
know that that's not good enough, and you're going to
cop a penalty. Or they're going in the lead with
the shoulder in towards the chest area, and the ball
carrier happens to lose his footing, starts to get tackled
a little bit and go down and then he hits
the shoulder and ban we've got another penalty. I would
like to see maybe, and I don't know, maybe it's
worth a trial in a couple of games. At some
(13:27):
stage when there's no impact on the semi finals towards
the end of the season, that the tackle line becomes
maybe the nipple across the chest and that becomes the line.
Anything above that you're penalized. Anything below it or good.
See how that goes.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
At the end of the day. It is a collision
based sport. It is an aggressive sport and making these
onwards eggs are going to break. Do you think there's
an acceptance out there? The things are going to go
down because of the nature of the sport, and the
athletes just go, you know, that's cool, we can deal
with that.
Speaker 8 (13:59):
Yes, and that is right.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
It is a very aggressive sport.
Speaker 8 (14:02):
And even the Yanks, when you see how hard they
hit each other with their helmets and all they're patterning around,
they still look at us and say, wow, you guys
are mad because of the way we hit, and our
players these days are so much stronger and fitter. It's
like running in the blocks of concrete. I would hate
to be on a kickoff the ball, the guy taking
that ball up, when the first player catches it and
passes to that guy taking the ball up, and then
(14:24):
that collision at the twenty thirty meter mark. Wow, I'd
hate to be amongst that because that's the most dangerous
part of the game, I believe, is that first collision
off the kickoff, that's massive. And when you get two
or three players hitting that blake, so you've got one
hundred and ten kilos running at three hundred and thirty
kilos when the three coming and hitting that collision is tough.
It is aggressive and it is dangerous. But that's we
(14:45):
accept it because that's our sport.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
It's a battle.
Speaker 8 (14:48):
It's tough, and that's part of what is so entertaining
the people and it's exciting. So I think the players
will keep putting their hand up saying, well, we accept it.
That's part of the game. We're going in there, but
we're still going to make sure we protect them and
we don't have the head knocks. We've got to reduce
the amount of head knocks as far as we can.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Right. Call is your call on eight hundred and eighty
to eighty Sports Talk All on your home of Sports
US Talks.
Speaker 9 (15:12):
It'd be.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Bell Harrigan there, ex boss of the referees the NRL
back in the day. You're never ever going to be
able to eradicate headnongs. Is simply not going to happen.
So you get that out of your mind. You're starting
to move forward. Yeah, there was a large amount of penalties,
a large amount of people coming under the pump over
(15:36):
the weekend. But the referees can't look at the number
being issued during the week and go, oh oh, we're
up around twelve. It a slow down. If someone transgresses,
you're penalizing. It's light works, is the way the law works.
Are uok with the sindos. If it does reduce concussion,
(15:59):
you're still going to have concussion. It's a brutal sport.
It's elbows, it's hard ground, its knees, it's gulls, its necks,
it faces, it's and on these athletes. They know that
when they go in it, I'm going there and get
wiped out by swinging arm and go well, that's not
supposed to happen. Is rugby lea, Of course it is.
(16:20):
As far as the thought process that sending players off
is killing the game, I'm not that comfortable with that idea.
The main reason is the officials are there to adjudicate,
and sometimes they're going to get it wrong. Most times
they're going to get it right, but sometimes they're going
(16:42):
to get it wrong, you know what, And I'm good
with that. I can deal with that. That's okay. I'm
a grown up guy. And if that's the way it
unfolds and the game slows up a weber because they're
trying to protect the injuries, well they're heads from injury. Yeah,
I get that too. I can accept that for the
greater good. It's just finding that balance point where suddenly
(17:04):
it becomes completely over the time. So at what costs,
I suppose, is the discussion it's going to work out
intent or there is an accident. I don't know. You're
never going to be able to define that in the moment.
So when the NRL come up with ideas like Andro
(17:25):
Abdo was talking about about the bunker only intervening to
advise refs if there's been wild and significant cases of
foul play, I get it. Wean to go back to again,
the referees get it wrong, and the referees get it right.
I think in general they get it right. Stuff they
(17:47):
get it wrong. I can accept that. If it takes
a couple of minutes, I can accept that too. I
don't think the game is slowing down to the speed
that people will reject it and turn the game off.
I think it's okay. They've got to adjudicate. It's that
balance to how far they go. They're only operating, and
(18:09):
they're all different human beings who see things in a
different way. They can't be a uniform decision because they're
different people seeing it through different eyes. Right, So I'm
not concerned about the amount of send offs, not even
about the consistency of the decision. May be it head,
(18:30):
neck shoulder. They're there to make a decision. They make
the call of its wrong bugger. If it's right, which
is more often not, is fantastic. You're doing your job.
So I don't think it's killing the game at all.
It's better than killing the player, right, it's just finding
that that happy balance. That's what you try and do
in all aspects of life. So you eight hundred eighty
(18:52):
ten eighty there are all these sendofs killing the games
that wreck your enjoyment over the weekend. Ah no, not again,
ah no, not upstairs again. Well no, that's what happens
in rugby. I'm fully accepted that, and for the ideas,
have a bit of duty of care and maybe hopefully
(19:12):
hope a couple of guys aren't dribbling into a cup
when they're forty fantastic. I don't think it detracts from
the game, really, don't oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty
lines are open. Where do you sit on this league fans,
sports fans? Is it going over the top? Is it
just about right? Or do they need to be harder?
(19:34):
This is News Talk ZB seven to twenty six on
Sports Talk eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. You can
text nineteen nine two ZBZB standard text chudge does apply,
but it's not much.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
You no need for the TMO. We've got the breakdown
on Sports Talk call oh eight hundred News Talk ZB.
Speaker 8 (20:02):
Goes against the one direct contact straight to the head
with moner force the game, shoulder on report is in
the bin.
Speaker 10 (20:12):
That's not the start that the Warriors were clearly needing
or wanting in this game to truly make us the contest.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
I think now I was going to help their course.
Speaker 7 (20:22):
I'm going to see some turn modern I'm again for
non report REMM. We've definitely seen an increase in head
high tackles this season. So lost this time last year.
So up to round eight, we had about two hundred
head high tackles. This year, we've had about three hundred
and seventy nine. So we've seen an increase, you said.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
The world stad CEO of the NRL with that comment
there before that from Sky that was the Dalai Queen Lama.
What a commentary talking about the sindoffs there that fascinating
little stat that number this time last year two hundred
high jaggles nearly four hundred of those times doubled it?
(21:06):
Does that say that the NRL are cracking down on
this and are making sure their staff are more aware
and are more likely to trigger finger it or conversy.
Doesn't mean the players haven't played any attention.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
At all.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
To any thought of any sanction and that's gone and
doing what they want anyway, and they'll just take their punt.
With the referee stuff almost lean toward that. I don't
know if it's an over correction from the refereeing stuff
or from the NRL. So back to what I asked
before at eight one hundred and eighty ten eighty. Are
(21:52):
these sendoffs killing the game? Is it dragging it down
into the swamp? I don't think it is. You've got
to find that balance between looking after the players and
keeping the game and entertainment, because that's what it is
first and foremost, and we don't have a situation like
(22:13):
Formula one back in the day, where they killed teams
and teams of them every couple of years, and as
soon as one of them got dragged off in a gurny,
they just get some other gung ho guy to climb
in and race. They've got to look after their players,
not what they did back in the Formula one days.
But there comes a time where the crowd and the
(22:34):
players and everybody knows that it's a tough game and
you're going to get hit in the head every now
and then. If you deliberately target their head drag them off,
that's good. A lot of these incidents is not deliberate targeting.
It's people sliding down and slipping down. I don't know
if you're going to apply the same penalty to that,
(22:58):
unlike oh, you look at according for example over the weekend.
I mean that was head to face and there's not
a lot of gray area there. So if players know
they're going to go to the judiciary or they're going
to walk, they're going to get ten minutes, it's going
to go on report. Why are we still seeing shoulders
go towards head ze We're trying to work out if
(23:24):
that's rotten technique from the players, complete an art, lack
of care from the players, or shoulder shrugs saying it's
going to happen, that's why it is. Well, sorry, mate,
I went about high. You say, if high tackles deliberate
high shots to their head, you got a twenty week band.
(23:47):
Do you think that'd stop overnight? Think of the fine
was twenty thousand dollars. That would stop overnight? Can you
over litigate to stop that wouldn't make any difference? Well,
you can find as a lot of people stop playing
(24:08):
the game because they can't afford it. It's a tough
game and you deliberately attack someone's head, and I don't
know if the deliberate head attacking. I think guys just
run into tackle and ill. Before you know it, were
going a hund a mile an hour, smash of heat
in the face. And you play the game. You accept
the fact that's going to happen from time to time.
(24:31):
Don't think you want to over extend yourself as far
as the referee and the bunker and try and find
something to penalize out of nothing and spend too much
time doing it. Bell Harrigan said, make the decision. Make
it pretty quick. It's up round their head, yellow cardam
go off, go on, report, get on with the game.
(24:52):
I don't think excess of penalizing is wrecking the game.
It's part of the game, and as a fan, I'm
willing to accept that. Darcy writes males off text. You
watch some of those head highs. Got a few people
or the ball are going into the tackle with their heads.
I think to get the penalty. Okay, maybe I don't
(25:20):
know why you'd go and low and try and get
your head cleaned out by someone's shoulder. If that's your drive,
I think you're probably taking a few knocks previously.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
But possibly.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
If the coaches won't drive the change, then the players won't.
I don't know if there's enough fair involved with the punishment.
How penitive it is to start the players going head high,
(25:52):
I don't know if it really will. Maybe if it
was extreme, it might. You've got to err one way.
I think maybe you er too far. You'll put people
off the game. But as a fan, so I ask you.
As a fan, I can accept the fact it's going
to be wrong. It's going to be right. It's going
to take a litt bit of time from time to time,
make it snappy, make a decision, get on with it's
(26:14):
not killing the games, trying to help the players long term.
You just can't get overly engaged and can't get too
upset and you can watch a game of rugby league
and now it's going to happen. Andrew John's what is
anything about the state of the game.
Speaker 11 (26:30):
You cannot eradicate accidents that are going to happen. So
I don't know how we got here. I don't know
whose decision it is. But you need to come out
tomorrow and you need to say why we're doing it,
and you need to show examples and what players and
what you wanted to do with tackling techniques, because this
is a farce. It is so embarrassing for the game.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, you look at a lot of those tackles finally
on YouTube are on the weekend, the ones that the
guys and on most of them admitted guilt. Guys out
they targeted their head. That's not a ruling problem for
the NRL. That's a player's problem, isn't it.
Speaker 6 (27:16):
What I thing?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
It is bad for the game. You into it. It's
part and parcel of what we watch and what we
see and I think for the greater part of it,
they make pretty good decisions. Some of them are wrong,
some of them are slow. That's okay, it's part of
the game of rugby League twenty three, eight minutes away
(27:37):
from eight lines open up, eight hundred and eighty ten eighty.
Also later on and the piece we're gonna hear from
Slade Griffin. Look he's doing something right. Andreew Webs the
Warrior says, Look, we've only had well, I think is
it three shots up top? We've had guys walked and
that's because of what Slade Griffin does as the defense coach.
(28:00):
They know not to be dumb, and that means you
won't get penalized. If you don't give someone the opportunity
to penalize you, they can't. This is News Talk. It's
seven nineteen eight Sports talking Out on News Talk z
(28:26):
B Mary Cities with Andrew Johnson. This one that's gone
too far? Politely disagree, can Gary, where do you stand
on this? And welcome?
Speaker 11 (28:37):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (28:39):
Basically, I kind of feel that the league have taken
a long time to get to a safe where rugby
has taken up looking at play a players, Well for
you I think the current situation where they have started
to change your mind is a little bit of a
backward step. They need to sort of take the thuggery
out of the game and make it all have the
(29:02):
game been shown as with the skills that they have
on the display.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
So what do you mean by reversing it? You mean
saying that the bunker won't bet intervene unless it's significant
foul play. Yeah.
Speaker 10 (29:16):
I think basically the referees at times have been a
bit light on some of what I call the thuggery
of the game, with the high tackles, the shoulder charge
them to heads and what have you. That's been going
on for some time and some people might think that's
just part of the game, but it's not, and it's
not looking out to play as welfare. And I think
they started the right track when they started to get
(29:37):
heavy on it and started bringing in sunburning. But now
they're sort of seemed to be backtracking a bit because
somebody's decided it's not culture having only twelve people on
the playing.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Thirteen and the only person to blame for that is
the player that's transgressed, right, and they're saying, well, no,
the limitations seems to be easy. You can't be so
punitive when it comes to a head high collection that
can be.
Speaker 10 (30:06):
Yeah, I think you're right basically. I mean players' attitudes
have to take. So one of your takes was would
you find them with the abandoned for a long periods
And I think both either or or both would have
a better effect on them and maybe stop some of
the silliness because league can have can show out some
very very good skills, and you see it time and
(30:27):
time with the top teams, some very very good skills
and some of those wingers they're diving diving tries.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
And what have you.
Speaker 10 (30:33):
But when you get into the high tackles and the
shoulder charging into the heads and what have you, I
think you've got to draw a row on somewhere, and
you've really got to put the emphasis on the clubs
to change the coaching and or get the coaches to
change their attitudes towards how they're tackling.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
And that's what we got with Slade Griffin and that's
why it's worked so well for the Warriors. They've not
been under the pump. I think the Titans have been
eighteen times as opposed to three times from the Warriors.
Speaker 10 (31:06):
Yep, that's support that he is part of case in
point where one coach is not actually taking anything serious
and possibly is it's hardening or something of that nature.
It's all part of the game. It's like listening to
a football players in some of the antics a goal
with taking guys out with hard tackles. Oh, that's just
part of the game. No, it's not. It's part of that.
(31:27):
You should be skillful en not to avoid that sort
of thing and reward good skills, not will reward suggery.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
I think, Garian, thanks very much for your time. You
can push change with maybe aggressive penalties as far as
time off.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Or or cost.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
You look at shoulder chargers, Well they got outlawed years ago. Yeah,
we still see them from time to time, from time
to time, but knowing near as much as you used to.
So players are actually capable of adjusting what they do.
Maybe it is just up to them, but you know,
as a fan, I mean, the referees do what they will. Anyway,
(32:13):
Enough of that, let's go to add assistant coach we're
talking about them before. His name is Slade Griffin, systant coach,
defense coach of the Warriors. And he joins us get
a slade. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Yeah, thanks thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Yeah no, thanks very much for joining us on the program.
Massive game coming up this week. In before we talk
about that and the Rides and the rise of the Warriors.
Interesting this NRL crackdown, So people are saying, even though
they're denying it around that the head high tackles and
the Warriors are right at the bottom of that list.
And I'm told, well, Andrew Webster Reckon, that's entirely down
(32:52):
to you as the defense coach. Pretty high praise from
your boss their slade, No I wish.
Speaker 9 (33:00):
Oh. Look, yeah, it's something we've obviously identified, like every team,
and they started cracking down on it. Look, there's accidents
that happen in the game, and sometimes someone's level might
change quickly and the.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
Accidentally catch them. But we do like to tackle rather
than wrestle, and.
Speaker 9 (33:15):
We do have a few really good low tacklers in
our team, so we try really encouraging them to tackle
low and kind of cut legs. So yeah, that probably
has helped us there.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
So that's all technique, because you can put all the
technique you want into a player's training can't you. But
sometimes it goes awry on the park. I mean someone
gets cleaned out underneath and they fall into a tackle.
This hard thing to control and a hard thing to adjudicate.
They've got to feel a bit for the refs.
Speaker 9 (33:41):
Yeah, I really do feel for the refs obviously, like
they run like double the cas the players.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
Do you have to make these split second decisions.
Speaker 9 (33:50):
I've obviously been giving guidelines to adjudicate too, But look,
it is a contact sport. Like I said, like these
guys are apart from ten meters and they're coming together
at lightning fast speeds and then, like like we said,
the level change and then all of a sudden, you accidentally,
you know, hit them on the face with a little
(34:11):
bit of a stray arm and you get seen to
the bin when it wasn't even that forceful. So I
heard Andrew Abdo last night saying they're going to recalibrate.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
So yeah, we'll see what happens this weekend.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Is a seems to you though, even though the amount
of players being benden at the moment, are they still
in the right wavelength? Do you think they're getting it right?
The referees are the way they're adjudicating this.
Speaker 9 (34:31):
I haven't been up to date with every single one.
I just know there's obviously been an increase. So yeah,
I just think they've been put in a bit of
a tough situation and like Andrew Abdo said last night
that they probably went a little bit too far. So
I think they're going to get the balance back this week.
So yeah, we'll just see how it happens all week.
In control is what we can control. And look, we've
just got to be careful and obviously you never want
to make contact with the head anyway, no.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
One coaches that. But yeah, like I said, sometimes accidents
happen on the field.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Let's hope no more excellence come out this weekend in
the Magic Round. To be looking to carry on at
your FORMUA sitting pretty at the moment fourth on the
competition ladder, I suggested the star the season. Not many
people want to pick that. You're doing well and you're
coming up against the cow men who aren't that too
far behind. I think they're sitting six that made what
are they boring to the party.
Speaker 9 (35:15):
Well, yeah, like they're four on the trot, so they
are in fine form. They're they're playing really confident. They're
just such a deadly team with the ball. Obviously they
work really hard in defense. They've got you know, a
lot of origin players in that team, so they're based
on hard work.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
But with the ball dead and drink water. Like they
just look into attack on the edges all the time.
Speaker 9 (35:35):
So one, you obviously want to tackle well, and so
the playable down so you can get your numbers right
to give yourself the best chance against them, because yeah,
they back themselves and they are gunslingers on and they're
really good.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
They execute really highly, so yeah, it's going to be
a very good game.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
How much do you change what you guys are doing
defensively when you're coming across these teams that can do
that and sling that ball around, because it looks like
you're not getting too overly engaged with what they're doing.
You're just doing the simple stuff, right.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Yeah, Like we've got our system that we pride ourselves on.
Speaker 9 (36:05):
We've got to obviously pro and structures, but then amongst that,
you know, the players have a bit of freedom and
we'll id something in the other team that we want
to change a little bit towards or something we think
we can do that weekend, but we kind of also
want to drag them into our game as well, So
we've been playing the long game by trying to get
a bit of fatigue in the game, play some armorous.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
Footy and yeah complete high locoties give. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Well, we had the same problem, didn't you, potential problem
a couple of weeks back when you took on the
Broncos with what they've got out wide and Assassin's everywhere,
pace and step, and that didn't bother you either. So
I'm figuring a similar thing comes up this weekend. Yeah.
Speaker 9 (36:48):
Yeah, they're a very deadly team. So we've prided ourselves
on being a defensive club.
Speaker 8 (36:52):
I know it's easy to.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
Say, but something we've worked really hard at and doesn't
just mean we're going to be that. We've got to
do it every week. I think you can see kind of.
Speaker 9 (36:59):
The momentum swings across the NRL at the moment. It's
very hard to be a great defensive team all the time,
but that's something we really priding ourselves on, so it
doesn't matter who we come up against. The boys that
worked really hard over preseason obviously for real defensive mindset
and the focus to be reliable on that side of
the ball, so no.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Real team changes. Consistency in selection Sleigh, that's a massive
part of what makes an NRL team successful. I don't
think you can underestimate what it means to have players
in combo constantly.
Speaker 9 (37:34):
Yeah, we obviously had a rough Round one and everyone
gave the coaches a bit of flag for sticking with
the same team.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
But we've had a few guys forced out due to injury.
Speaker 9 (37:45):
Been a little bit lighter in the backs, and we've
had that next man up mentality and the guys that
have come in have done a really good job. So yeah,
we're fortunate enough that obviously the boys played well, they've
earned this spot. Like you said, we've trusted them with
what we've seen on the training paddock, not only the
first eight rounds but over the preseason, so it obviously
helps having those combinations and Sid and Stone go as well.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
What's it like traveling over to Brisbane for the Magic
Rounds home game for you? But it's kind of not
really at home for your home game last week too,
but it wasn't really at home. Is this something that
you I suppose how do you prepare for going to
the Dirty heat of Brisbane in a magic round, is
there much preparation required to think change from what you
(38:28):
do normally.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
Or not necessarily. I think it's not going to be
too hot this weekend, which helps. Obviously, it's just very.
Speaker 9 (38:33):
Hard, like we're not bothered by the heat, but sometimes
just hard when you're not exposed to it. So that
Melbourne game was like thirty two degrees and I think
it was twenty degrees in New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
So unfortunately you just don't get exposed to it sometimes.
But look, we get a really good following in Brisbane.
Speaker 9 (38:48):
There's a lot of Warriors fans. Last year was an
awesome game, like we had half the stadium and Warriors
kit and they were allowed as well. So yeah, the boys,
we're looking forward to getting over it. I think we're
all professionals in the game now. But even just as
a footy fan, it's a really cool weekend. It's amazing
buzz about the town. Doesn't matter what team you go for.
Everyone's got the jerseys on and it's just a good
(39:08):
vibe the whole weekend.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
And I'm presuming you we are a Warrior's jersey when
you're sitting in the crowd I'm joking. I'm joking, of course,
and just that we peace on the season so far.
Were you're sitting on the table. I don't know if
you watch any of the Australian talk shows around the NRL,
(39:29):
I can say fairly that they don't really mention the
Warriors much. You guys are flying under the radar. It's
got to be good for you, doesn't it.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
Yeah, no, we'll fly under the radar. We're happy being
the underdogs.
Speaker 9 (39:38):
So oh yeah, just the old cliche like we honestly
do just worry about one week at a time, and
even worse, we just try to win every day. So
that's been our mindset lately. We've just been trying to
win every training session and then that sets us up
for the game.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Carry on with that mindset. It's working for us. Slack Griffin,
thanks very much for your time, Go well, travel safe.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
Yeah, thanks very much having me forget the riffs call
you make the call on.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Sports Talk on your home of Sports News Talk. Sit
for more from Sports Talk, listen live to News Talks
it B from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Darcy Waldegrave
from News Talk zed B.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Why Hello there, welcome into sports Talk. Thanks for your time.
My name is Darcy watergrav In here through tail eight
o'clocks and I over talking sport. Honey. That rubber league
is our focus of an evening both ends of the program.
We're bookending the rugby League chat with rugby league people.
(00:53):
Slack Griffin one he's on Warrior's assistant coach, joins us
toward the end of the show Unchained Squad to play
the cow me in and magic around. Talk to him
about that, and of course the the drama around send
us in the NRL. Every man's getting sand off people
in the concession stands on report how you go, and
(01:17):
we'll start off the show with that as well. Bill Harrigan,
former head of NRL, referring he's a Hall of Famer,
one of the best to ever try and blow the
p out of a whistle. He joins us to look
at the eighteen send us for last weekends around where
did that come from? Why are they doing it? Is
it working? And then we'll hand the same talk to
(01:40):
you on eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. We can
text nineteen ninety two that is z B z B
like they killing the game? Is this really dragging the
game down to its knees because someone's kneeds can take
a high shot and then it's on report. Couldn't help
myself anyway, Bill Harrigan around the corner. You're up after that,
and then sleigh at Griffin. But before we go anywhere
(02:02):
near that, let's get nice and close to this sor
today and a sport today. Last task Master Andrew Webster
is content with his team's record around high tackles has
been a the least penalized team in that space in
the NRL just three infractions.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Don't get me wrong. We traditionally hid high to wrap
the football up before we need to, but we do
having in our power not to drive horse sholden into
the players had and I think we've had a couple
of slipping ones like Rocko got suspended when he slept
on the ground, but you couldn't prove to the judiciary
that he didn't hit him in the head, so you
got to cop that one.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
Marata definitely hit him in the head.
Speaker 4 (02:35):
That was last week.
Speaker 2 (02:36):
Any Who, I've been serious. He's a good human and
a cricketer. He's essued the contract based at T twenty
franchise trap like most other New Zealanders. Instead, he's off
to Britain to play county cricket.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
I've always wanted to play some county cricket and experience
what it was like. And yeah, I didn't get a
chance to play reball last year in the Plunket Shield
at all really, so I do enjoy reball and so
it was cool just to get over here, and so yeah,
it's just a chance to come over, get better at
bowling and just get stuck up.
Speaker 2 (03:05):
Ye's a lot of cricket in a short amount of
time and you are a fast bowler. Not sure it's
the smartest thing you've done, so be it. Joe Parker's managed,
David Hagen, says his team prefer to stay active, although
they're they're aware of the possibility of Joe fighting for
multiple belts later in the year after the just announced
(03:26):
oh second Dubois punch up.
Speaker 6 (03:28):
Our team have discussed it and we prefer keeping busy
and having a fight inter them. But I think Joe
sataka would be the front runner for the winner of
Dubro se Ave New Zealand are potentially fighting for the
undisputed heavyweight will title as soon as the end of
this year, and in the.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
NBA playoffs, sculls that Warrior has beat the Houston Rockets today,
leaving Steven Adams' team in playoffs stripe. Jimmy Butler knows
how tough as Warriors are.
Speaker 4 (03:54):
I always say that we got the most competent guys.
Anybody can win the ball in a basket, But.
Speaker 7 (03:58):
More than anything, we're locking in on the deep business
side of the ball with kayhard.
Speaker 2 (04:01):
When we live it on turnovers, we're.
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Hard to be damn.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
And that's the sport today, a lot like a fuffall
around the nature of penalties, of high shots, of dismissals
all in the NRL. Andrew Abdo, chief executive of the
National Rugby League, had this to say about that.
Speaker 7 (04:21):
Let me first say it hasn't been a correct time
at all. There's been no policy shift. It's been the game.
It's always been illegal to tackle high, and we've been
synpinning and penalizing high tackles for the game going back decades.
We've been really consistent around this. The last couple of years.
We're not going to apologize and take it backwards step
for protecting players from head high shots. However, what I
will say is that we've seen a couple of errors.
(04:43):
We've seen a couple of judgment calls that perhaps weren't correct,
and it was important to acknowledge that, takingcountability for that,
and we'll adjust and hopefully we'll see improvements now in
the weeks of follow.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
So you think that you go it wrong on the weekend, I.
Speaker 7 (04:55):
Think there were some calls that we're wrong and look
and we understand some of the frustration, particularly when the
bunker intervenes in play a number of plays down the track.
We can understand. While that's frustration with that, the bars
of that was always intended to be quite high. It
needs to be serious or significant file play for the
bunker the interven and to BN someone once the players
(05:16):
moved on. That's something that we want to work on
with the referees.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
It's Andrew Abdo. He is the chief executive of the
National Rugby League and talking about the issue around excessive
sendings off of bunker, reviews of on report and penalties.
We're joined by a former boss of the NRL, referees
Bill Harrigan, Good Evening, Bill, Good Evening, Gusie drama over
(05:40):
the weekend. In the NRL eighteen players sent to the
bin and round eight. A lot of them high tackles
the suggestions there's been a crackdown from upstairs. They're saying, no,
that's not the case. We're pretty consistent in what we do.
What's your read on what's happened?
Speaker 8 (05:56):
Bill, They're not being privy to any information that goes
on with the referee in that anymore. I don't know
if there was a crackdown set or whatever, but to
see a players sending right across the eight games, something
was said somewhere that they're going to do it, But
after watching it, I'm confused. I think a lot of
the people I've spoken to are all confused about what
(06:18):
is a high shot? When is it intentional or illegal?
And when was it an accident? And what are we
going to do about it? And I understand they've got
to keep the integrity of the game and the safety
of the players. We've also got to be remember, we've
got an entertainment out there, and you know, just some
of the I'm shaking my head eyes with some of
the decisions compared to some of the others that weren't
acted upon over the weekend.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
Consistency in applying a law like this, this is always
going to be problematic, like back in your day when
you're refereeing umpires. Referee sorry aren't built the same. They're
going to see different things. So it's actually quite a
fraught thing to lay down, isn't it It is?
Speaker 8 (06:55):
And I go back to way back, and I know
they've done it this year, and I applaud the NRL
for doing it this year and making the players play
the ball with their foot. It's a basic of our
game and I'm happy that they got stuck into that.
But we were given an instruction many many years ago,
I think just after the Super League started back in
well after the NRL first started back in the late
nineties early twos, that we had to get to play
(07:16):
the ball with a foot on it. And poor old
Stephen Clark ended up being a scapegoat because he was
the first game that weekend and he went out and
blew around about thirty penalties. So when he played it,
even just missed putting their foot or their studs on
the ball, or they end up copying a penalty, and
I know after that game there were quite a few
of us rang around and said, are we going to
do this? And so we decided that we weren't going
(07:39):
to do it as badantic as what he did, and
anyone that looked like they were touching the ball we
allowed to play on because we knew we still had
to keep an entertaining game, an empathy for the game,
and not have thirty penalties in a stop start game,
which is most people turn off after that. I understand
what they've done and where they're coming from, but with
eight referees across the board each weekend, I just find
(08:02):
it's probably they've found it very difficult to determine what
was to be PENALTI sinbind or placed on report.
Speaker 2 (08:09):
Duty of care to the athletes is one thing, but
I suppose I shouldn't really make light of this, But
duty of care to the paying fans, the people paying
for the broadcast at some of their laundroom, and people
actually going to the games, it surely has to be
taken into account.
Speaker 8 (08:22):
I think they do, and I think I've heard the
NRLL this morning have said that they're going to take
the bunker out of the play by player, and I'm
happy with that. That's a really good thing that they
can do straight off. Different to last weekend is to
stay right. We will not be going back four or
five tackles when the bunker has seen something, stopping play,
(08:44):
going back and giving a penalty, putting a report, and
in some occasions sin binning them back. Then my opinion is,
if the referee doesn't see it, you play on and
you let the match review You've got in place to
do their job post the game, and if some player
has to be charged, well then they charge him. And
(09:05):
I know the the negative on that is where a
team will say, well, hang on, we would disadvantage because
nothing happened to that player during the game, But the
team that plays him next week gets the advantage out
of it because he's now got a week, two week,
three weeks suspension. Well that's just bad luck. That's the
way the game is. If the referee doesn't see it,
play on. If he sees it, he'll pull it up,
he'll penalize it, he'll send in it, or he'll put
(09:27):
it on a report. But at least he's doing it
and the continuity of the game stays there. He gets
an opportunity to let the game flow and referee that
game with the empathy that is required.
Speaker 2 (09:36):
They put someone on a report for an obvious shot
to their head, then they march them. Should they just
put them on report and carry on? There's that fine line,
I suppose between what the referee actually does and how
they reacts to what they see, because in some cases
it's extraordinarily obvious that a guy is targeting other bloke's
(09:58):
head with his shoulder and he should be worked but walked.
But when it's kind of in between, it's a little
hard for them to make that call.
Speaker 8 (10:05):
Yeah, I I still support the decision by the NRL
when they brought it in some years ago to say
we're going to add the ten minutes to it, because
there were sometimes when a player would be placed on report,
but the guy that he's actually HiT's been taken off
and have a head goes through the head. You know,
(10:27):
got to do that. Yeah, They've got to go through
those protocols, or he may not end up coming back
on because he's been whacked that hard and that crook
and the concussion. They don't let him back on and
so all it suffered is a bike being placed on report.
So I get what they said, and we're going to
cost you ten minutes, and usually that is the ten
minutes he's in there, and a guy might be going
under the head protocols in that same time, So I
(10:48):
get that. And it's also it's they do that so
that the start of the players. Well, if you do
go and you hit a bloke's head, you could end
up copping ten minutes in the bin and your team suffers.
So I get why they do that. But sometimes in
this last weekend, I did see some instances where they're
there were innocuous hits with a shoulder, end of the
(11:09):
head and he was end up placed on report and
sent to the bin. And then I've seen something similar
and nothing ended up happening, or it was just a
straight out penalty. And that's when I started thinking, well,
what is happening today? Where is the line in the sand?
What is acceptable, what's not? What's the sim bin what's not?
And I think that's what all fans are throwing your
hands up in the air after the last weekend saying, well,
(11:31):
we really don't know what's what now.
Speaker 4 (11:35):
Bill, with the.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Focus of this and the focus on people changing athletes,
changing their tackle tech meat. Have you noticed from your
lounge room that there is more of an attention to
detail when it comes to tackling. The guys actually know
their head is not a good place, and in general
they don't they go to the guts, they go to
(11:59):
the chest, they go underneath it. Are you seeing that?
Speaker 8 (12:03):
Yeah, I'm seeing that. But we're still seeing a lot
of them because they're doing one, two, three in The
emphasis is not get the bloke on the ground anymore.
The emphasis is hold him up as long as we
can take him backwards. I hate this style of tackling.
I like when you watch back in the nineties and
the early two thousands an where there was a hit,
Let's get him on the ground as quick as we can.
And yes, they did test you back then by trying
(12:24):
to say, okay, can we turtle him, can we lay
on him a little bit longer, can we hold his
arm down? What can we do? But they were getting
him on the ground as quick as they could. These
days it's hit stick, second man in, hold him up more,
third man in. We're going to take him backwards and
then we'll put him on the ground and then we'll
peel off him and it takes for ages. Then I
don't like that style of tackling. I like to see
(12:45):
they're out of it. But while they're hitting and sticking,
and those first two guys are standing upright and they're
not going to the legs. When they hit one around
the belly and the chest, that's fine. But that other
man's coming in and he's actually gone up around the
top and his arm's deflecting off the other the ball
carrier's arm or the ball and just copping him with
a little flick under the chin. And we now, I
(13:06):
know that that's not good enough, and you're going to
cop a penalty. Or they're going in the lead with
the shoulder in towards the chest area, and the ball
carrier happens to lose his footing, starts to get tackled
a little bit and go down and then he hits
the shoulder and ban we've got another penalty. I would
like to see maybe, and I don't know, maybe it's
worth a trial in a couple of games. At some
(13:27):
stage when there's no impact on the semi finals towards
the end of the season, that the tackle line becomes
maybe the nipple across the chest and that becomes the line.
Anything above that you're penalized. Anything below it or good.
See how that goes.
Speaker 2 (13:41):
At the end of the day. It is a collision
based sport. It is an aggressive sport and making these
onwards eggs are going to break. Do you think there's
an acceptance out there? The things are going to go
down because of the nature of the sport, and the
athletes just go, you know, that's cool, we can deal
with that.
Speaker 8 (13:59):
Yes, and that is right.
Speaker 4 (14:00):
It is a very aggressive sport.
Speaker 8 (14:02):
And even the Yanks, when you see how hard they
hit each other with their helmets and all they're patterning around,
they still look at us and say, wow, you guys
are mad because of the way we hit, and our
players these days are so much stronger and fitter. It's
like running in the blocks of concrete. I would hate
to be on a kickoff the ball, the guy taking
that ball up, when the first player catches it and
passes to that guy taking the ball up, and then
(14:24):
that collision at the twenty thirty meter mark. Wow, I'd
hate to be amongst that because that's the most dangerous
part of the game, I believe, is that first collision
off the kickoff, that's massive. And when you get two
or three players hitting that blake, so you've got one
hundred and ten kilos running at three hundred and thirty
kilos when the three coming and hitting that collision is tough.
It is aggressive and it is dangerous. But that's we
(14:45):
accept it because that's our sport.
Speaker 4 (14:47):
It's a battle.
Speaker 8 (14:48):
It's tough, and that's part of what is so entertaining
the people and it's exciting. So I think the players
will keep putting their hand up saying, well, we accept it.
That's part of the game. We're going in there, but
we're still going to make sure we protect them and
we don't have the head knocks. We've got to reduce
the amount of head knocks as far as we can.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Right. Call is your call on eight hundred and eighty
to eighty Sports Talk All on your home of Sports
US Talks.
Speaker 9 (15:12):
It'd be.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Bell Harrigan there, ex boss of the referees the NRL
back in the day. You're never ever going to be
able to eradicate headnongs. Is simply not going to happen.
So you get that out of your mind. You're starting
to move forward. Yeah, there was a large amount of penalties,
a large amount of people coming under the pump over
(15:36):
the weekend. But the referees can't look at the number
being issued during the week and go, oh oh, we're
up around twelve. It a slow down. If someone transgresses,
you're penalizing. It's light works, is the way the law works.
Are uok with the sindos. If it does reduce concussion,
(15:59):
you're still going to have concussion. It's a brutal sport.
It's elbows, it's hard ground, its knees, it's gulls, its necks,
it faces, it's and on these athletes. They know that
when they go in it, I'm going there and get
wiped out by swinging arm and go well, that's not
supposed to happen. Is rugby lea, Of course it is.
(16:20):
As far as the thought process that sending players off
is killing the game, I'm not that comfortable with that idea.
The main reason is the officials are there to adjudicate,
and sometimes they're going to get it wrong. Most times
they're going to get it right, but sometimes they're going
(16:42):
to get it wrong, you know what, And I'm good
with that. I can deal with that. That's okay. I'm
a grown up guy. And if that's the way it
unfolds and the game slows up a weber because they're
trying to protect the injuries, well they're heads from injury. Yeah,
I get that too. I can accept that for the
greater good. It's just finding that balance point where suddenly
(17:04):
it becomes completely over the time. So at what costs,
I suppose, is the discussion it's going to work out
intent or there is an accident. I don't know. You're
never going to be able to define that in the moment.
So when the NRL come up with ideas like Andro
(17:25):
Abdo was talking about about the bunker only intervening to
advise refs if there's been wild and significant cases of
foul play, I get it. Wean to go back to again,
the referees get it wrong, and the referees get it right.
I think in general they get it right. Stuff they
(17:47):
get it wrong. I can accept that. If it takes
a couple of minutes, I can accept that too. I
don't think the game is slowing down to the speed
that people will reject it and turn the game off.
I think it's okay. They've got to adjudicate. It's that
balance to how far they go. They're only operating, and
(18:09):
they're all different human beings who see things in a
different way. They can't be a uniform decision because they're
different people seeing it through different eyes. Right, So I'm
not concerned about the amount of send offs, not even
about the consistency of the decision. May be it head,
(18:30):
neck shoulder. They're there to make a decision. They make
the call of its wrong bugger. If it's right, which
is more often not, is fantastic. You're doing your job.
So I don't think it's killing the game at all.
It's better than killing the player, right, it's just finding
that that happy balance. That's what you try and do
in all aspects of life. So you eight hundred eighty
(18:52):
ten eighty there are all these sendofs killing the games
that wreck your enjoyment over the weekend. Ah no, not again,
ah no, not upstairs again. Well no, that's what happens
in rugby. I'm fully accepted that, and for the ideas,
have a bit of duty of care and maybe hopefully
(19:12):
hope a couple of guys aren't dribbling into a cup
when they're forty fantastic. I don't think it detracts from
the game, really, don't oh eight hundred eighty ten eighty
lines are open. Where do you sit on this league fans,
sports fans? Is it going over the top? Is it
just about right? Or do they need to be harder?
(19:34):
This is News Talk ZB seven to twenty six on
Sports Talk eight hundred and eighty ten eighty. You can
text nineteen nine two ZBZB standard text chudge does apply,
but it's not much.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
You no need for the TMO. We've got the breakdown
on Sports Talk call oh eight hundred News Talk ZB.
Speaker 8 (20:02):
Goes against the one direct contact straight to the head
with moner force the game, shoulder on report is in
the bin.
Speaker 10 (20:12):
That's not the start that the Warriors were clearly needing
or wanting in this game to truly make us the contest.
Speaker 4 (20:19):
I think now I was going to help their course.
Speaker 7 (20:22):
I'm going to see some turn modern I'm again for
non report REMM. We've definitely seen an increase in head
high tackles this season. So lost this time last year.
So up to round eight, we had about two hundred
head high tackles. This year, we've had about three hundred
and seventy nine. So we've seen an increase, you said.
Speaker 2 (20:40):
The world stad CEO of the NRL with that comment
there before that from Sky that was the Dalai Queen Lama.
What a commentary talking about the sindoffs there that fascinating
little stat that number this time last year two hundred
high jaggles nearly four hundred of those times doubled it?
(21:06):
Does that say that the NRL are cracking down on
this and are making sure their staff are more aware
and are more likely to trigger finger it or conversy.
Doesn't mean the players haven't played any attention.
Speaker 4 (21:27):
At all.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
To any thought of any sanction and that's gone and
doing what they want anyway, and they'll just take their punt.
With the referee stuff almost lean toward that. I don't
know if it's an over correction from the refereeing stuff
or from the NRL. So back to what I asked
before at eight one hundred and eighty ten eighty. Are
(21:52):
these sendoffs killing the game? Is it dragging it down
into the swamp? I don't think it is. You've got
to find that balance between looking after the players and
keeping the game and entertainment, because that's what it is
first and foremost, and we don't have a situation like
(22:13):
Formula one back in the day, where they killed teams
and teams of them every couple of years, and as
soon as one of them got dragged off in a gurny,
they just get some other gung ho guy to climb
in and race. They've got to look after their players,
not what they did back in the Formula one days.
But there comes a time where the crowd and the
(22:34):
players and everybody knows that it's a tough game and
you're going to get hit in the head every now
and then. If you deliberately target their head drag them off,
that's good. A lot of these incidents is not deliberate targeting.
It's people sliding down and slipping down. I don't know
if you're going to apply the same penalty to that,
(22:58):
unlike oh, you look at according for example over the weekend.
I mean that was head to face and there's not
a lot of gray area there. So if players know
they're going to go to the judiciary or they're going
to walk, they're going to get ten minutes, it's going
to go on report. Why are we still seeing shoulders
go towards head ze We're trying to work out if
(23:24):
that's rotten technique from the players, complete an art, lack
of care from the players, or shoulder shrugs saying it's
going to happen, that's why it is. Well, sorry, mate,
I went about high. You say, if high tackles deliberate
high shots to their head, you got a twenty week band.
(23:47):
Do you think that'd stop overnight? Think of the fine
was twenty thousand dollars. That would stop overnight? Can you
over litigate to stop that wouldn't make any difference? Well,
you can find as a lot of people stop playing
(24:08):
the game because they can't afford it. It's a tough
game and you deliberately attack someone's head, and I don't
know if the deliberate head attacking. I think guys just
run into tackle and ill. Before you know it, were
going a hund a mile an hour, smash of heat
in the face. And you play the game. You accept
the fact that's going to happen from time to time.
(24:31):
Don't think you want to over extend yourself as far
as the referee and the bunker and try and find
something to penalize out of nothing and spend too much
time doing it. Bell Harrigan said, make the decision. Make
it pretty quick. It's up round their head, yellow cardam
go off, go on, report, get on with the game.
(24:52):
I don't think excess of penalizing is wrecking the game.
It's part of the game, and as a fan, I'm
willing to accept that. Darcy writes males off text. You
watch some of those head highs. Got a few people
or the ball are going into the tackle with their heads.
I think to get the penalty. Okay, maybe I don't
(25:20):
know why you'd go and low and try and get
your head cleaned out by someone's shoulder. If that's your drive,
I think you're probably taking a few knocks previously.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
But possibly.
Speaker 2 (25:31):
If the coaches won't drive the change, then the players won't.
I don't know if there's enough fair involved with the punishment.
How penitive it is to start the players going head high,
(25:52):
I don't know if it really will. Maybe if it
was extreme, it might. You've got to err one way.
I think maybe you er too far. You'll put people
off the game. But as a fan, so I ask you.
As a fan, I can accept the fact it's going
to be wrong. It's going to be right. It's going
to take a litt bit of time from time to time,
make it snappy, make a decision, get on with it's
(26:14):
not killing the games, trying to help the players long term.
You just can't get overly engaged and can't get too
upset and you can watch a game of rugby league
and now it's going to happen. Andrew John's what is
anything about the state of the game.
Speaker 11 (26:30):
You cannot eradicate accidents that are going to happen. So
I don't know how we got here. I don't know
whose decision it is. But you need to come out
tomorrow and you need to say why we're doing it,
and you need to show examples and what players and
what you wanted to do with tackling techniques, because this
is a farce. It is so embarrassing for the game.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
Yeah, you look at a lot of those tackles finally
on YouTube are on the weekend, the ones that the
guys and on most of them admitted guilt. Guys out
they targeted their head. That's not a ruling problem for
the NRL. That's a player's problem, isn't it.
Speaker 6 (27:16):
What I thing?
Speaker 2 (27:16):
It is bad for the game. You into it. It's
part and parcel of what we watch and what we
see and I think for the greater part of it,
they make pretty good decisions. Some of them are wrong,
some of them are slow. That's okay, it's part of
the game of rugby League twenty three, eight minutes away
(27:37):
from eight lines open up, eight hundred and eighty ten eighty.
Also later on and the piece we're gonna hear from
Slade Griffin. Look he's doing something right. Andreew Webs the
Warrior says, Look, we've only had well, I think is
it three shots up top? We've had guys walked and
that's because of what Slade Griffin does as the defense coach.
(28:00):
They know not to be dumb, and that means you
won't get penalized. If you don't give someone the opportunity
to penalize you, they can't. This is News Talk. It's
seven nineteen eight Sports talking Out on News Talk z
(28:26):
B Mary Cities with Andrew Johnson. This one that's gone
too far? Politely disagree, can Gary, where do you stand
on this? And welcome?
Speaker 11 (28:37):
Oh?
Speaker 10 (28:39):
Basically, I kind of feel that the league have taken
a long time to get to a safe where rugby
has taken up looking at play a players, Well for
you I think the current situation where they have started
to change your mind is a little bit of a
backward step. They need to sort of take the thuggery
out of the game and make it all have the
(29:02):
game been shown as with the skills that they have
on the display.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
So what do you mean by reversing it? You mean
saying that the bunker won't bet intervene unless it's significant
foul play. Yeah.
Speaker 10 (29:16):
I think basically the referees at times have been a
bit light on some of what I call the thuggery
of the game, with the high tackles, the shoulder charge
them to heads and what have you. That's been going
on for some time and some people might think that's
just part of the game, but it's not, and it's
not looking out to play as welfare. And I think
they started the right track when they started to get
(29:37):
heavy on it and started bringing in sunburning. But now
they're sort of seemed to be backtracking a bit because
somebody's decided it's not culture having only twelve people on
the playing.
Speaker 2 (29:50):
Thirteen and the only person to blame for that is
the player that's transgressed, right, and they're saying, well, no,
the limitations seems to be easy. You can't be so
punitive when it comes to a head high collection that
can be.
Speaker 10 (30:06):
Yeah, I think you're right basically. I mean players' attitudes
have to take. So one of your takes was would
you find them with the abandoned for a long periods
And I think both either or or both would have
a better effect on them and maybe stop some of
the silliness because league can have can show out some
very very good skills, and you see it time and
(30:27):
time with the top teams, some very very good skills
and some of those wingers they're diving diving tries.
Speaker 3 (30:32):
And what have you.
Speaker 10 (30:33):
But when you get into the high tackles and the
shoulder charging into the heads and what have you, I
think you've got to draw a row on somewhere, and
you've really got to put the emphasis on the clubs
to change the coaching and or get the coaches to
change their attitudes towards how they're tackling.
Speaker 2 (30:53):
And that's what we got with Slade Griffin and that's
why it's worked so well for the Warriors. They've not
been under the pump. I think the Titans have been
eighteen times as opposed to three times from the Warriors.
Speaker 10 (31:06):
Yep, that's support that he is part of case in
point where one coach is not actually taking anything serious
and possibly is it's hardening or something of that nature.
It's all part of the game. It's like listening to
a football players in some of the antics a goal
with taking guys out with hard tackles. Oh, that's just
part of the game. No, it's not. It's part of that.
(31:27):
You should be skillful en not to avoid that sort
of thing and reward good skills, not will reward suggery.
Speaker 2 (31:35):
I think, Garian, thanks very much for your time. You
can push change with maybe aggressive penalties as far as
time off.
Speaker 4 (31:48):
Or or cost.
Speaker 2 (31:50):
You look at shoulder chargers, Well they got outlawed years ago. Yeah,
we still see them from time to time, from time
to time, but knowing near as much as you used to.
So players are actually capable of adjusting what they do.
Maybe it is just up to them, but you know,
as a fan, I mean, the referees do what they will. Anyway,
(32:13):
Enough of that, let's go to add assistant coach we're
talking about them before. His name is Slade Griffin, systant coach,
defense coach of the Warriors. And he joins us get
a slade. Welcome to the show.
Speaker 4 (32:26):
Yeah, thanks thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
Yeah no, thanks very much for joining us on the program.
Massive game coming up this week. In before we talk
about that and the Rides and the rise of the Warriors.
Interesting this NRL crackdown, So people are saying, even though
they're denying it around that the head high tackles and
the Warriors are right at the bottom of that list.
And I'm told, well, Andrew Webster Reckon, that's entirely down
(32:52):
to you as the defense coach. Pretty high praise from
your boss their slade, No I wish.
Speaker 9 (33:00):
Oh. Look, yeah, it's something we've obviously identified, like every team,
and they started cracking down on it. Look, there's accidents
that happen in the game, and sometimes someone's level might
change quickly and the.
Speaker 4 (33:09):
Accidentally catch them. But we do like to tackle rather
than wrestle, and.
Speaker 9 (33:15):
We do have a few really good low tacklers in
our team, so we try really encouraging them to tackle
low and kind of cut legs. So yeah, that probably
has helped us there.
Speaker 2 (33:26):
So that's all technique, because you can put all the
technique you want into a player's training can't you. But
sometimes it goes awry on the park. I mean someone
gets cleaned out underneath and they fall into a tackle.
This hard thing to control and a hard thing to adjudicate.
They've got to feel a bit for the refs.
Speaker 9 (33:41):
Yeah, I really do feel for the refs obviously, like
they run like double the cas the players.
Speaker 4 (33:47):
Do you have to make these split second decisions.
Speaker 9 (33:50):
I've obviously been giving guidelines to adjudicate too, But look,
it is a contact sport. Like I said, like these
guys are apart from ten meters and they're coming together
at lightning fast speeds and then, like like we said,
the level change and then all of a sudden, you accidentally,
you know, hit them on the face with a little
(34:11):
bit of a stray arm and you get seen to
the bin when it wasn't even that forceful. So I
heard Andrew Abdo last night saying they're going to recalibrate.
Speaker 4 (34:19):
So yeah, we'll see what happens this weekend.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
Is a seems to you though, even though the amount
of players being benden at the moment, are they still
in the right wavelength? Do you think they're getting it right?
The referees are the way they're adjudicating this.
Speaker 9 (34:31):
I haven't been up to date with every single one.
I just know there's obviously been an increase. So yeah,
I just think they've been put in a bit of
a tough situation and like Andrew Abdo said last night
that they probably went a little bit too far. So
I think they're going to get the balance back this week.
So yeah, we'll just see how it happens all week.
In control is what we can control. And look, we've
just got to be careful and obviously you never want
to make contact with the head anyway, no.
Speaker 4 (34:52):
One coaches that. But yeah, like I said, sometimes accidents
happen on the field.
Speaker 2 (34:56):
Let's hope no more excellence come out this weekend in
the Magic Round. To be looking to carry on at
your FORMUA sitting pretty at the moment fourth on the
competition ladder, I suggested the star the season. Not many
people want to pick that. You're doing well and you're
coming up against the cow men who aren't that too
far behind. I think they're sitting six that made what
are they boring to the party.
Speaker 9 (35:15):
Well, yeah, like they're four on the trot, so they
are in fine form. They're they're playing really confident. They're
just such a deadly team with the ball. Obviously they
work really hard in defense. They've got you know, a
lot of origin players in that team, so they're based
on hard work.
Speaker 4 (35:29):
But with the ball dead and drink water. Like they
just look into attack on the edges all the time.
Speaker 9 (35:35):
So one, you obviously want to tackle well, and so
the playable down so you can get your numbers right
to give yourself the best chance against them, because yeah,
they back themselves and they are gunslingers on and they're
really good.
Speaker 4 (35:46):
They execute really highly, so yeah, it's going to be
a very good game.
Speaker 2 (35:49):
How much do you change what you guys are doing
defensively when you're coming across these teams that can do
that and sling that ball around, because it looks like
you're not getting too overly engaged with what they're doing.
You're just doing the simple stuff, right.
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Yeah, Like we've got our system that we pride ourselves on.
Speaker 9 (36:05):
We've got to obviously pro and structures, but then amongst that,
you know, the players have a bit of freedom and
we'll id something in the other team that we want
to change a little bit towards or something we think
we can do that weekend, but we kind of also
want to drag them into our game as well, So
we've been playing the long game by trying to get
a bit of fatigue in the game, play some armorous.
Speaker 4 (36:26):
Footy and yeah complete high locoties give. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (36:32):
Well, we had the same problem, didn't you, potential problem
a couple of weeks back when you took on the
Broncos with what they've got out wide and Assassin's everywhere,
pace and step, and that didn't bother you either. So
I'm figuring a similar thing comes up this weekend. Yeah.
Speaker 9 (36:48):
Yeah, they're a very deadly team. So we've prided ourselves
on being a defensive club.
Speaker 8 (36:52):
I know it's easy to.
Speaker 4 (36:53):
Say, but something we've worked really hard at and doesn't
just mean we're going to be that. We've got to
do it every week. I think you can see kind of.
Speaker 9 (36:59):
The momentum swings across the NRL at the moment. It's
very hard to be a great defensive team all the time,
but that's something we really priding ourselves on, so it
doesn't matter who we come up against. The boys that
worked really hard over preseason obviously for real defensive mindset
and the focus to be reliable on that side of
the ball, so no.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Real team changes. Consistency in selection Sleigh, that's a massive
part of what makes an NRL team successful. I don't
think you can underestimate what it means to have players
in combo constantly.
Speaker 9 (37:34):
Yeah, we obviously had a rough Round one and everyone
gave the coaches a bit of flag for sticking with
the same team.
Speaker 4 (37:42):
But we've had a few guys forced out due to injury.
Speaker 9 (37:45):
Been a little bit lighter in the backs, and we've
had that next man up mentality and the guys that
have come in have done a really good job. So yeah,
we're fortunate enough that obviously the boys played well, they've
earned this spot. Like you said, we've trusted them with
what we've seen on the training paddock, not only the
first eight rounds but over the preseason, so it obviously
helps having those combinations and Sid and Stone go as well.
Speaker 2 (38:06):
What's it like traveling over to Brisbane for the Magic
Rounds home game for you? But it's kind of not
really at home for your home game last week too,
but it wasn't really at home. Is this something that
you I suppose how do you prepare for going to
the Dirty heat of Brisbane in a magic round, is
there much preparation required to think change from what you
(38:28):
do normally.
Speaker 4 (38:28):
Or not necessarily. I think it's not going to be
too hot this weekend, which helps. Obviously, it's just very.
Speaker 9 (38:33):
Hard, like we're not bothered by the heat, but sometimes
just hard when you're not exposed to it. So that
Melbourne game was like thirty two degrees and I think
it was twenty degrees in New Zealand.
Speaker 4 (38:42):
So unfortunately you just don't get exposed to it sometimes.
But look, we get a really good following in Brisbane.
Speaker 9 (38:48):
There's a lot of Warriors fans. Last year was an
awesome game, like we had half the stadium and Warriors
kit and they were allowed as well. So yeah, the boys,
we're looking forward to getting over it. I think we're
all professionals in the game now. But even just as
a footy fan, it's a really cool weekend. It's amazing
buzz about the town. Doesn't matter what team you go for.
Everyone's got the jerseys on and it's just a good
(39:08):
vibe the whole weekend.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
And I'm presuming you we are a Warrior's jersey when
you're sitting in the crowd I'm joking. I'm joking, of course,
and just that we peace on the season so far.
Were you're sitting on the table. I don't know if
you watch any of the Australian talk shows around the NRL,
(39:29):
I can say fairly that they don't really mention the
Warriors much. You guys are flying under the radar. It's
got to be good for you, doesn't it.
Speaker 4 (39:36):
Yeah, no, we'll fly under the radar. We're happy being
the underdogs.
Speaker 9 (39:38):
So oh yeah, just the old cliche like we honestly
do just worry about one week at a time, and
even worse, we just try to win every day. So
that's been our mindset lately. We've just been trying to
win every training session and then that sets us up
for the game.
Speaker 2 (39:51):
Carry on with that mindset. It's working for us. Slack Griffin,
thanks very much for your time, Go well, travel safe.
Speaker 4 (39:57):
Yeah, thanks very much having me forget the riffs call
you make the call on.
Speaker 1 (40:03):
Sports Talk on your home of Sports News Talk. Sit
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I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com