“I think if you lie down in those situations you should have to go for a head knock assessment. I know as a coach, if we look at the Felise Kaufusi and Josh Kerr situations, we quite obviously don’t ask our players to lie down,” Woolf said.
“I don’t want them to lie down. But it’s hard for players not to do that if they see the reward as a penalty and a possible sin bin if you do lie down and draw more attention to the tackle.
“I know if one of my players lies down, and it’s a halfback or outside back and they have to leave for a head knock assessment, I’m certainly encouraging them not to do that again.
“I think what we’re encouraging is for players to lie down because they know they get a double reward if they do. They know it’s going to be looked at closer by the Bunker.”
Kristian Woolf
“I think we’ve created a bit of a mess and inconsistency around it. It’s certainly not the referees’ fault, but it’s something we’ve got to look at as a game so it’s not having the impact it is on players and the game in general.
“What the solution is, I’m not quite sure. I don’t think sin binning the way it is at the moment is the right solution because there’s just too much inconsistency there.”
Part of the NRL’s decision to stamp out high contact comes from a player welfare point of view, given the links to brain diseases such as chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
But Woolf stressed tackles occurring low had been every bit as guilty of triggering concussions.
“The fact is we play a game that’s really fast, things happen really quickly, things change really quickly and that means things can go wrong,” Woolf said.
“I don’t think trying to get everyone to tackle low is the answer. I haven’t got the evidence for this in terms of numbers, but my eyes tell me you get more of those serious concussions when people get a low tackle wrong.”
Loading
It was that situation which cost Broncos forward Brendan Piakura, who was stretchered from the field late in his side’s win against Wests Tigers in concerning scenes.
Brisbane star Ben Hunt confirmed Piakura was in good spirits, “bouncing around like nothing had even happened”, but coach MIchael Maguire would discuss tackling techniques with some players.
“It was a bit of a strange weekend with what the NRL are doing with high tackles. Madge probably isn’t happy about it, he’ll talk to some players who have some tendencies in their game, but it’s something to be aware of,” he said.
Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter.
