From The Couch: Round 3

From The Couch: Round 3

The Time for an 18th Man Has Arrived: The NRL has been accused of being wildly reactive in recent years but in the interests of fairness the game must introduce an 18th man to account for players being ruled out with HIA. The game was hit with a spate of injuries over the weekend with both Canberra and Cronulal being put in an extremely dangerous position of having to play significant minutes with either one or zero players available on the bench. There is no question the game has done an excellent job around concussions and ensuring players who suffer them cannot go back on. They are putting not only teams at a disadvantage but other players at serious risk of injury if an extra player is not allowed to come in if a player or number of players are ruled out under the HIA protocols. Cronulla stood no chance against Parramatta despite their incredible resilience. With the game expecting so much from clubs and getting so much money from both TV and wagering, the NRL must seriously look at introducing this rule as soon as is feasible.
Two Tackles for the Ages: Villiame Kikau and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck are directly responsible for both the Panthers and Warriors claiming the two points on the weekend. They both also added a chapter in Penrith and New Zealand legend with two tackles for the ages. Kikau came from being knocked over to get his hand under Justin Olam’s attempt to score the matchwinner for Melbourne. RTS went fully stretched to force Jordan Rapana to knock on over the line as he dove for the winner. Some seasons you would not see one tackle of such quality in such a key moment. We got two on the one weekend.

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