NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo this week said the number of high tackles identified by the match-review committee across the opening eight rounds had nearly doubled since the start of last season – and now the worst-offending clubs can be revealed.
Statistics show the Gold Coast Titans have been penalised 19 times for high tackles in just seven games. The Brisbane Broncos and Sydney Roosters are equal second with 16 penalties, closely followed by the Wests Tigers and Manly Sea Eagles with 14 high-tackle penalties.
At the other end of the scale, the New Zealand Warriors have conceded just three penalties for high shots, while South Sydney and the Dolphins have given away four penalties.
Abdo said 201 penalties had been identified by the match-review committee during the first eight rounds in 2024, with that number jumping to 379 this season. The number of penalties awarded sits at 171.
There were 18 sin-binnings over the weekend. Abdo said that was a combination of too much intervention from the bunker – at least three sin-bins were the result of advice from the off-field officials – but also laid part of the blame on the players’ ill discipline.
“We’re also calling on the players and clubs to be more disciplined, and always think about player safety as part of how they prepare for a game,” Abdo said.
Injured Titans playmaker Kieran Foran said his side’s heavy number of penalties had nothing to do with poor tackling technique but was instead down to the officiating.
“It’s purely bad luck in my view,” Foran said. “It’s crazy that you’re expected to change your target area when some bloke chops someone low, and they fall in a split second.
Manly’s Siosiua Taukeiaho is sent to the sin bin by Belinda Sharpe.Credit: Getty Images
“Our training would be exactly the same as the 16 other clubs. We don’t do anything differently. It’s the way they’re officiating.”
When asked about high tackles on Tuesday, Warriors coach Andrew Webster told reporters in Auckland: “Slade Griffin, our defence coach, spends a lot of time on hitting below the ball.
“Don’t get me wrong, we traditionally hit high to wrap the football up, if we need to, but we do everything in our power not to drive the shoulder into the player’s head.
“It’s rugby league, and sometimes you get it wrong. I think we’ve had a couple of slipping ones.”
Tino Fa’asuamaleaui is sent to the sin-bin against the Dolphinsin round five.Credit: Getty Images
Souths coach Wayne Bennett said his club’s relatively clean record was down to good fortune rather than good coaching.
Like Foran, Bennett said it was unfair to put the onus back on the players when there were so many mitigating factors.
“There’s no coach in the game who coaches players to tackle high, it’s as simple as that,” Bennett said.
“I tell my players, ‘I want the game to protect you, but I expect you to protect each other out on the football field as well and play the game in the right spirit’. I’m no different to the other coaches. We’re all on the same page.
“You have mitigating circumstances in a lot of these [tackles] because players are dropping, the height they are running at; it’s like a car crash, something happens, you react to it, but the outcome might not be what you want because of the collision, and the nature of the sport.
“No head high is acceptable. But there are mitigating circumstances at times, and we have to consider them.
“You can’t put the onus back on the players. When players get their decisions wrong, players and the team pays a huge price with that because of a penalty or ten minutes in the sin-bin, and that’s the difference a lot of the time between winning and losing games because of the momentum swing.”
At least two NRL coaches asked why referees were forced to rule on force to the head during games, and believed that decision should rest with the match review committee the following day.
