Players seethe, coaches fume and crowds howl at referee rulings on hip-drop tackles, but how can the NRL lose in its campaign to outlaw this latest so-called scourge?
Firstly, the NRL is demonstrating a duty of care to its players, as it did with the spear tackle and dangerous throws.
Secondly, hip-drop tackles almost always result in a sin bin, which leads to tries. Tries allow TV broadcasters to go to an advertising break, similar to the commercials which follow every goal kicked in an AFL game. The greater the ad opportunities, the richer the code’s broadcasting contract.
Thirdly, the subjective nature of hip-drop tackles creates differences of opinion with coaches, players and pundits. The media thrives on the fireflies of controversy that dance around the game.
While the NRL will lampoon a link between hip-drop tackles and TV contracts, there is no doubt sin-binnings lead to tries.
This season, there have been 44 sin-binnings, with 35 tries scored during the period a team was a player short. This is a rate of 0.8 tries per sin-binning. It does not include the 14 tries scored by the team with 12 men. In fact, teams with a player in the sin bin have outscored their opponents on nine occasions.
Nat Butcher’s alleged hip-drop tackle on Briton Nikora.
Sin bins tend to produce an expansive game, a reality seemingly lost on Dragons captain Ben Hunt when, in the final seconds against the Raiders, he allowed his forwards to charge the line against a team with 12 men.
Not all sin-binnings are for hip-drop tackles, nor do all hip-drop tackles lead to a player sent to the sideline for 10 minutes.
Consider the confusing case of Storm player Trent Loiero, who was penalised by referee Adam Gee for a hip-drop tackle on Manly’s Haumole Olakau’atu but not sin-binned. However, Manly kicked a goal from the consequent penalty in a close match.
Loiero found himself in a position where he could only impede the progress of the giant forward by clinging to his side and dragging his own legs to act as a brake. It was either that, or release Olakau’atu and let him score. But the Brookvale crowd, educated by the publicity over hip-drop tackles, became a hanging jury, howling protest even though Loiero did not fall on Olakau’atu’s legs.
Gee placed Loiero on report but did not sin bin him, perhaps suspecting it was not a classic hip-drop tackle. Loiero was not charged by the match review committee.
The problem with hip-drop tackles is referees are ruling on suspicion, and ball-carriers are exploiting this by feigning lower-body injuries following accidental contact with their legs.
The NRL’s new rules on head injury assessments, where players can be stood down for 11 days, mean they can’t risk faking concussion. Instead, they use the vagary surrounding the hip-drop tackle to writhe in agony akin to some of the worst fakers in soccer.
However, while the rate of players charged with hip-drop tackles has doubled, it’s the expanded use of the sin bin which is infuriating coaches and players.
Dale Finucane is sent for a spell by referee Ben Cummins earlier this month.Credit: Getty
This 10-minute penalty was introduced to punish professional fouls but is now being used for incidental contact. The NRL risks resembling rugby union, where yellow cards are used for trivial offences.
There have been only seven times this NRL season where neither team has scored during a sin bin but there have been 10 occasions where the team with a player in the sin bin has conceded two or more tries.
This data ignores the later impact of the sin bin, when tries are scored after the offending player has returned to field and the drain on team energy has been compounded.
The sin bin’s rate of yielding tries is far in excess of six-again rulings and penalties. The repeat set innovation is producing 0.23 tries in the set of tackles following the six-again call. Penalties, once the principal course of action by referees, are yielding only 0.13 tries in the set of tackles following.
Most rule changes under the current administration have been to increase the number of tries and with them running at an average of 60 per round, the NRL’s campaign against hip-drop tackles and increased use of the sin bin places them in a win-win position.
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