Why fighting has no place in rugby league

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Coxy

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Simple reason. If a player slips into a tackle and you make accidental contact with their head you will get cited and probably get a week.

Punching someone is a deliberate, premeditated act, a deliberate attempt to cause your opponent injury.

Every punch should be an instant send off and mandatory 6 week suspension.

OR, we go back to not suspending players for high tackles unless they're reckless or intentional.
 
Coxy said:
Simple reason. If a player slips into a tackle and you make accidental contact with their head you will get cited and probably get a week.

Punching someone is a deliberate, premeditated act, a deliberate attempt to cause your opponent injury.

Every punch should be an instant send off and mandatory 6 week suspension.

OR, we go back to not suspending players for high tackles unless they're reckless or intentional.
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Yeah I've always wondered the same thing?? eusa_think

Add to that if the same 2 players who had a fight on the field, were to have the exact same fight at a Pub, punch for punch, it would be front page news and be labbled a disgrace. And it's likely they may be charged with assault
 
Bingo. It's just a ridiculous contradiction. As I said in one of the Origin threads I think it contributes a bit to the tendency of some players to react violently off the field when drunk. They have a stink on the field and they have their coach, teammates and fans telling them how great that was...

If a relatively innocuous high tackle knocked Price out White would probably be suspended for 2 weeks.
But a flurry of punches and he's fine?

Makes absolutely no sense.
 
Well think of it this way. Bloke pushes your head into the ground, you get pissed off...but you don't get up swinging, you just wait til he runs at you again.

BAM, you hit him with a swinging arm, knock him the **** out.

6 week suspension.

The mentality is the same. It's about getting physical payback for a perceived wrong. It's stupid.

We either treat punches the same as any other attack to the head or we stop suspending people for innocuous little tackles.
 
I do think that it's inconsistent that you can get in a fight in a pub and be completely hounded for it (rightly so), then you can get in a fight on the field and no one cares.

Like it or not, the fact of the matter is the majority of people watching love seeing fights during a match. So i severely doubt any new rules will be introduced to lessen the chances of a fight occurring.
 
ningnangnong said:
I do think that it's inconsistent that you can get in a fight in a pub and be completely hounded for it (rightly so), then you can get in a fight on the field and no one cares.

Like it or not, the fact of the matter is the majority of people watching love seeing fights during a match. So i severely doubt any new rules will be introduced to lessen the chances of a fight occurring.
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I'm not denying that. And if that's what they want, then fine.

But they should scrap Careless high tackles from the charge book as well as Grade 1 or even 2 dangerous throws.
Penalties should be sufficient.
 
I just can't agree.

IMO, they should suspend anyone who throws a punch, connecting or not.

If not, then in fairness they must stop suspending players for accidental high tackles or low grade, accidental dangerous throws.
 
ningnangnong said:
I do think that it's inconsistent that you can get in a fight in a pub and be completely hounded for it (rightly so), then you can get in a fight on the field and no one cares.
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Yes, but if you tackle someone in a pub you'd get charged with assault also. The football field is a completely different situation.

The reason players don't usually get punished severely for fighting on the field is the punches very rarely connect. When punches are actually thrown which solidly connect the player is generally sent off and suspended. I remember Brett White getting sent off and a 4 week suspension for a punch on Ben ross last year.
 
Coxy you need to write this out and send it into vossy at the roast :)
 
Coxy said:
I just can't agree.

IMO, they should suspend anyone who throws a punch, connecting or not.

If not, then in fairness they must stop suspending players for accidental high tackles or low grade, accidental dangerous throws.
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Even if that punch is in the act of self defence?
 
You can defend yourself without punching. There's a thing you can do called tackling, some rugby league players are quite well trained in the art. Knock a bloke to the ground and he's not going to be able to punch you too much.

I repeat. If we're going to sanitise illegal contact out of our game then punching, ALL punching, must result in suspensions.
 
You know I've always thought I liked the biff but this thread has got me thinking.

On one hand it was great to see the boys all fired up on Wednesday night but if it's not acceptable off the field then it shouldn't be on the field. Double standards in the treatment of footy players are half the reason they keep making the news.

I'll miss the biff but it's better for the game if it was gone.
 
Fozz said:
On one hand it was great to see the boys all fired up on Wednesday night but if it's not acceptable off the field then it shouldn't be on the field. Double standards in the treatment of footy players are half the reason they keep making the news.
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But fighting is not acceptable on the football field, it is always penalized and usually dealt with sin bins and suspensions (if it wasn't origin White and Price would have definatley been binned). Coxy is just talking about raising the punishments.

I don't think players fighting off the field has anything to do fighting on the field. I am certain players realize the difference between what happens on the field and off the field hence they don't go around tackling everyone. Just like F1 drivers (and fans) understand that just because your allowed to speed around surfers paradise during a race doesn't mean you can break the speed laws at other times.
 
Coxy said:
You can defend yourself without punching. There's a thing you can do called tackling, some rugby league players are quite well trained in the art. Knock a bloke to the ground and he's not going to be able to punch you too much.
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Do you mean the grapple tackle??
 
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