When the dust finally settled at AAMI Park on Friday night, and the teams had retreated to their respective dressing-rooms, Roosters coach Trent Robinson gathered his players together for his post-match oratory.
“They wanted a street fight tonight,” Robinson said, according to those in the room. “And Jared gave them one.”
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves is the enforcer every team needs, every rival fan hates and the NRL and its lawmakers don’t know how to handle.
So, too, is Storm giant Nelson Asofa-Solomona, who is racking up fines this season like he’s parked his car in a loading zone and refuses to move it.
Heaven knows Big Nelson refuses to change his Street Fighter II mindset whenever he takes the field, just like Big Jared, and this is where the conversation gets a little funky about rugby league and its future.
Here’s a question. Was the match between the Roosters and Storm the dirtiest this season, all elbows and forearms and knees? “Dog shots” as they are known among the players?
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Nelson Asofa-Solomona lead the charge as the Roosters and Storm go toe to toe on Friday night.Credit:NRL Photos
Notwithstanding State of Origin III, the answer is probably “yes”.
Was it the most gripping match of the season?
Notwithstanding State of Origin III, the answer is also “yes”.
There is a disconnect between what the NRL wants its game to be and what most of its supporter base wants to watch.
Head office wants to appeal to the broadest demographic possible, including the mums and dads whose biggest concern is making sure their child is safe playing the so-called greatest game of all.
It’s all about the message, such as last year’s shabbily-handled crackdown on head-high tackles that lasted a month – although it does occasionally rear its head during matches.
Then there’s the rusted-on fan who adores rugby league’s brutal, gladiatorial nature. The rusted-on fan who wants their rugby league with a generous side-order of mayhem. The rusted-on fan who wants Waerea-Hargreaves and Asofa-Solomona strutting along the sideline like Komodo Dragons, before taking the field and tearing into each other as they mark their territory.
But where to draw the line? Referee Adam Gee has been criticised by some for the stop-start nature of Friday night’s match, but I thought he handled a volatile match superbly.
If teams are going to the bend the line with illegal play, they need to expect to be caught out with the occasional penalty against them.
Jared Waerea-Hargreaves grabs Nelson Asofa-Solomona.Credit:Getty
Waerea-Hargreaves took the meaning of “chinning” someone to a new level and spent 10 minutes in the sin bin for slamming his prodigious chin into Asofa-Solomona’s forehead. Buy the ticket, take the ride.
If anything, Gee could’ve enforced more set restarts for ruck infringements — there were only four in total — as each side held down the other in the tackle.
But, apart from that, he took the same approach to the match as Bill Harrigan did in his pomp: he didn’t get in the way and he let the players sort things out.
Rugby league matches are messy, no matter how much the NRL seeks perfection. Fans need to expect inconsistencies from the referee — even our old mates in the bunker — for matches as fiery as this one.
We rightfully expect some semblance of consistency when the charge sheet drops from the match review committee the following day and, on that score, the game remains all over the place.
Roosters prop Lindsay Collins faces four weeks on the sideline for his alleged hip drop, while Storm players didn’t receive so much as a warning for similar tackles.
Big Nelson copped a $3000 fine for dangerous contact on Joseph Suaalii but a raft of other misdemeanours from Friday night’s match were overlooked.
As for Big Jared, people have forgotten that he sparked the melee that ultimately led to his time in the sin-bin after swinging and collecting the head of Storm five-eighth Cameron Munster.
Nelson Asofa-Solomona puts a hit on Roosters winger Joseph Suaalii.Credit:NRL Photos
It was a deliberate act, delivered just seconds after Gee had told both captains he was drawing a “line in the sand”.
The NRL has come in for criticism in the past few days about Collins being the only one to receive a match suspension out of the most brutal match of the season.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo placed a greater emphasis on players being fined instead of suspended to avoid the silly situation where players were being sidelined for innocuous grade one-offences, or because of carryover points and loading.
The NRL insists the change is working: there have been 151 charges in 2022 while there were 303 charges in 2021, which highlights that the modern-day player is more concerned about his back pocket than the jumper. Then there are players like Big Nelson and Big Jared who are loyal to the street fight.
They can’t fight with impunity. There needs to be a line drawn somewhere, by someone.
But long may the game find a place for them.
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