Quote: BuckleyStreetWire "But most of the ones being moaned about aren't bad tackles at all. I am no fan of Wigan at all but i've read that two incidences have been moaned at in this thread both by Powell and there was nowt up with either of them...one of them was penalised for being after "held" was called and that was it. But even ones to the standing legs, with force, are fine as long as it's at the back of the leg where the leg can bend and flow with the tackle or arms are wrapped around the legs.
Fair enough the ones targeting the joint from the side or the front are the bad ones (as the leg doesn't bend sideways or forwards at the knee) and medial/lateral or cruciate ligament damage can result but they are really very few and far between in and people are bemoaning tackles that are perfectly fine at the moment in my opinion. I think it's just a bit "flavour of the month" to be picking this thing out at the moment.'"
But those tackles aren't "fine". You're running the risk of serious injury. There is no need whatsoever for any force to be applied when a player is already held upright. All the "3rd Man" needs to do is wrap his arms around and let the other 2 effectively tip the ball carrier over.
There is no need for force to be applied. When there is, it is a very fine line (effectively luck) that the ball carrier isn't injured. In exactly the same way as a kickers standing leg is off limits.
There is no downside to the game, it won't miss anything at all, through getting rid of these tackles. There is no loss of spectacle at all and we're saving players from risk of injury.
There are things the refs can do around the held call but that still doesn't excuse defenders taking unnecessary risks with the ball carriers safety.
The game is quite rightly getting nervous over different tackles and techniques. It should be. The players are incredibly, massively faster, stronger, fitter and more powerful than ever before. Add in the full time nature of the game giving time to practice and think about different techniques (plus the faster, fitter players now being able to perform them compared to previously) and you get these techniques that are relatively new.
The forces in tackles are massively bigger than before, just listen to the impacts when Peacock was mic'd up on the BBC, or just talk to any of the conditioners or analysts who look at the GPS data. This means we have to be more careful around what the players do to each other.
I was disappointed to see the end of the shoulder charge and was against it at the time. But I can see why it was got rid of. The number and force of impacts the players withstand are huge and unfortunately many of the players utilising the shoulder charge were doing it recklessly.
But this type of tackle is relatively easy to get rid of and has no downside to the game at all. It's win win. Stop potentially serious injury and we don't lose anything. All it needs are a few red cards and players will stop doing it and coaches will stop coaching their team to do it. They'll find a safer way to bring players down.
