Anxious officiating as clubs exploit medical loopholes
Kenty dives into a scathing assessment of the state of rugby league officiating, suggesting that a culture of fear is preventing referees from making critical decisions during the closing stages of matches, arguing officials are becoming increasingly hesitant when the pressure is at its peak.
Referees "take the lesser of two evils"
"Referees are unwilling to officiate when the game is on the line," Kent said. "They get too nervous for it. They don't want to come in and say, oh, because in the back of their mind, if I get this wrong everyone is going to blow up. And so it is almost like they take the lesser of two evils. I will pretend I haven't seen it."
Kent dismissed the notion that officials should simply let the players determine the outcome of a match without intervention. "It falls into this bullshit category of, oh, I will let the players decide the game. Look, you can't let players decide the game. Otherwise you wouldn't need rules. You wouldn't need a referee out there."
Clubs "rotting the system" via HIA loopholes
Beyond the scrutiny of the referees, the podcast turned its attention to allegations of tactical manipulation regarding the Head Injury Assessment protocols. Reports suggest that certain clubs may be using the system to gain an unfair advantage by manufacturing "fake" HIAs to secure free interchanges for fatigued middle forwards.
"Clearly these orange shirts are club employees," Kent noted when discussing the trainers responsible for initial on-field assessments. "It wouldn't be too big a stretch to say, mate, after 28 to 32 minutes, I want you to go on, I want you to take number 10 off with an HIA because he is going to need a rest."
Kent warned that the lack of transparency in communications between club staff and doctors makes the loophole nearly impossible to police under current regulations. "The NRL cannot listen to that dialogue. So we don't know right now what the orange shirt is saying to the doctor on the sideline to get the player off."
Roosters rediscover "good violence"
The discussion also touched upon the physical evolution of the game, with Kent praising the Sydney Roosters for their intimidating display against the Dolphins. He credited their victory to a level of "good violence" that unsettled their opponents from the opening whistle. "The Roosters intimidated the Dolphins," Kent said. "The Roosters really shocked him a little bit with the level of violence and, like, good violence. I do believe there is good and bad violence."
NRL "turning it into basketball"
However, Kent expressed concern that broader rule changes designed to protect players are inadvertently sanitising the sport. He argued that the current restrictions on challenging kickers and catchers are making the game "impossible to actually defend" for the side without the ball. "We are turning it into basketball," he lamented. "You cannot keep manufacturing these rules that keep taking all this out of the game. If you are bringing in rules that make it impossible to actually defend that try as a defensive team, what sort of rule is that? It is just absurd."
Watch the whole episode on Fanatics TV.
