Isaac Luke will also miss out on the first game of the Four Nations, because he received a two game ban.

I don't feel that sorry for Luke. In a year dominated by the injury to Alex McKinnon, its stunning that people were suggesting that he should somehow be pardoned for a lifting tackle simply because it was the week before the Grand Final.

If you watch the tackle its obvious that whilst not at the worst end of the scale of such tackles (he didn't drive SBW into the ground), he clearly and completely unnecessarily lifted SBW into a dangerous position. Why he expected any other result given that he didn't attempt to correct the situation (as many other players have) by trying to bring SBW to the ground safely, I have no idea.

This has been the most annoying part of it, just because its a Grand Final doesn't meant the rules should be any different. As you said with the Alex McKinnon incident, its amazing that these types of tackles are still happening like this. He only has himself to blame for his ban.

I'm amazed more hasn't been done to eradicate spear tackles both in Australia and here. I think, with the speed and power of modern players, it's just a matter of time before there's another incident like McKinnon's or worse.

A lot has been done to be fair in the NRL, and Luke's ban has hopefully created a precedent that sticks in players' minds.