KEY POINTS:
The NRL judiciary must roll Storm and Kangaroo captain Cameron Smith out of the finals knockout game against Cronulla this weekend if the organisation is to retain any credibility in regard to the grapple tackle issue.
All year the administrators have plugged on about what they are doing to protect the head and neck of tackled players, instructions have been emphasised to referees.
The tackle effected by Smith and Kiwi teammate Jeremy of the same surname was dangerous. Had Sam Thaiday been a smaller man, had he fallen differently, there could quite easily have been either head, neck, shoulder or arm injuries due to the way the Melbourne pair had the Bronco pinned as they took him down.
The former Kangaroos doctor Nathan Gibbs said yesterday the tackle was dangerous and needed to be eliminated from the game.
Smith faces a grade one contrary conduct charge which carries a one-week suspension, unless you have a history of offending. Were it another player, say Wade McKinnon, would they have thrown a grade one charge at him or would it have been grade three? Pardon me for getting paranoid but shouldn't attacking the head be worth more time sidelined than hoicking a gob that drops short? And how come there has been no mention by Aussie commentators of J. Smith, New Zealander, bench secondrower.
C. Smith has previous, for a strangle tackle on Brent Tate in round one.
The Storm asked Tate to give evidence on Smith's behalf - can you imagine Smith giving evidence on behalf of Tate right now so Tate could play a final, should the situation arise?
If Smith gets off, it opens the door to foul play.
Commentators across the Tasman have raised the argument that this is finals football, not for the faint-hearted, that there should be a separate judicial system for the finals - presumably where no one gets suspended.
Remember the movie Rollerball where you could grab players by the hair and smash their face on the wall? We'll be there soon if that goes ahead.
Do we allow Smith carte blanche, or anyone in the Kangaroos squad? How comes it just applies to Australia's captain? Melbourne Storm assistant coach Stephen Kearney will no doubt recall being banned by the NRL prior to test matches, as were other Kiwis including Ali Lauitiiti, Quentin Pongia, John Lomax, Jarrod McCracken, etc. And how far can Smith go? Can he stomp on players' heads and get away with it? Or is it limited to hands, so the opposition five-eighth can't catch the ball?
Warriors captain Steve Price complained to referee Jason Robinson about strangle-hold tackles several times during their playoff against the Storm two weekends ago, for which Storm chief executive Brian Waldron labelled him a whinger.
Are you a whinger, Pricey, I asked him yesterday. "We don't want to see players get hurt," he said. "At Melbourne it wasn't whingeing, it was stating the obvious, it was there for everyone to see."
Price rubbished Waldron's and Smith's claims that it was a Warrior tactic to draw Robinson on to their side and get him to issue penalties. "We never spoke about it [grapple tackles] once before the game, we were not trying to slow the game down, they were. I only spoke to the referee at stoppages. I was just doing my job as a captain. I'll do it again just the same if I have to."
The bottom line is, how come the Storm employ one of Australia's best wrestling coaches and a martial arts specialist to help them with defensive training if, as they claim, they are not trained to grapple-tackle?
We await the decision of the three wise men of the NRL's judiciary panel with bated breath.
The only surprise will be if a stunning array of new camera angles, medical evidence that players can flex like flubber and plenty of legalese of the type that comes out of bulls' backsides does not result in the game's best hooker being cleared.
