Ban charge or not - but don't muck around

Bulldogs forward Sam Kasiano (right) is shoulder charged. Photo / AAP

I used to love the shoulder charge. It was a confrontational element in what was already a collision sport and allowed teams another way of gaining dominance.

People loved the big hits and saw it often in tests, State of Origin and even some Winfield Cup.

I understand the game has changed from my day and I also understand the need to change the rules to protect players' safety.

But I don't understand why they are tinkering with the rules to make it ambiguous.

It's now become a matter of interpretation based on whether a player's elbow is touching the hip or not at the time — they are now saying it's not a shoulder charge if the elbow is away from the hip.

Given the speed the game is being played at now, referees are going to struggle to determine that at the moment of impact. Does that mean possible incidences will be referred to the video referee so they can measure the distance the elbow is away from the hip, thereby halting the game?

I don't really care what they do but either ban the shoulder charge or not. Don't have half a rule when you're allowed it in certain situations. When you start putting rules around it, and it becomes a matter of interpretation, it becomes a joke.

If league goes down this path, it will become like rugby union, which is littered with rules that come down to interpretation. I love rugby union, and coach a local high school side, but no one really knows what is going on and players and spectators are getting increasingly frustrated.

League is still a spectacle, and so much more today than it was in my day, with intricate set plays and some amazingly athletic tries scored.

Banning the shoulder charge takes away from the confrontational side of the game but there's still a place for the confrontational player. There are always niggles and combative situations between two players that don't involve shoulder charges — the push and slap here, the verbal stoush there.

This tinkering of the rules around shoulder charges is going to make coaches more aware of them but no coach teaches the tackling technique. It's an instinctive movement by players and there are very few of them these days anyway.

The rule makers need to make a definitive decision — either ban the shoulder charge or not — and stick with it.