The " Tackle " enigma !

Rugby League is a contact sport.   The purpose of the game is to prevent an opposition player gaining the ball and taking it to ground over the " try " line to add to the team's score.  The opposition players " tackle " whoever is holding the ball and seek to put him on the ground to neuter progress towards the scoring line.

Unfortunately, one of these tackles caused Alex McKinnon to suffer a broken neck and he may now be a paraplegic. This is a tragedy and an enquiry has been held to revise the rules to prevent further injuries of this nature.  Jordan McLean, the tackler in this incident, has been suspended from play for seven weeks as a penalty for his involvement.

Over many decades, freak accidents have injured players of rugby league games.  What was called the " Spear tackle " has been completely banned.   Now it is proposes that a similar ban apply to any tackle in which the tackled is lifted bodily off the ground.   The problem is that Rugby as a spectator sport may become little more than " touch " football if the physical aspect of the game is neutered.

Rugby League players tend to be very big men.   It takes a lot of force to stop a one hundred and fifty kilogram male running at full speed and often the tackle is the combined effort of several tacklers.   Such was the case with Alex McKinnon.   Viewers of the game would have seen this same scenario thousands of times over the games recent history.   The tacklers would bring the tackled parallel with the ground at waist height - and then put him on the ground safely.   In the McKinnon tackle, lack of coordination resulted in him going to the ground head down - with consequent neck injury.

There is absolutely no doubt that Jordan McLean intended no harm and it seems grossly unfair that he has been singled out for punishment when three players were involved in that tackle.   The enquiries finding of guilt will label him for life - and he will face the prospect of legal action for damages.

Rugby League will wrestle with many options to improve game safety.   Perhaps tackling needs to be restricted to one on one and the multi tackle by several players banned.   It would be hard to define a legal tackle which did not involve a degree of lift.  Putting a person on the ground requires conversion from the vertical to the horizontal - and somewhere in that equation the tackled's feet needs to leave the ground.

It would also be useful to consider the huge number of games played over the years and the fact that serious accidents are so rare.   It would be so easy to alter the rules in the interests of safety and in so doing emasculate the game to the point that it no longer interested either spectators or players.

It would be unfortunate if a freak accident resulted in rule changes that sent a much loved game into terminal decline !