There is a big, big problem with Harry Grant being sin binned on Saturday evening during a surprise Melbourne Storm loss to the Cronulla Sharks.
And yes, before you remind me there was 'contact' with a kicker, I'm well and truly aware.
But Harry Grant was not looking at Daniel Atkinson when he made contact with him. He was running past and accidentally happened to make the smallest amount of contact with the Cronulla half.
Now, don't get me wrong. We have seen some horrendous instances of pressure on kickers in recent times, particularly in reserve grade where Lachlan Ilias was taken out playing for the South Sydney Rabbitohs, and then this weekend when Brad Schneider was taken out.
Those incidents - and a number of others - are absolutely either sin bins or send offs.
But the punishment of being sat off the field for a length of time, or potentially the rest of the game, should be reserved for incidents that are clearly dangerous, malicious or carry intent behind them.
Grant's contact on Atkinson during Saturday night's clash didn't hit a single one of those criteria, and yet, after review from Adam Gee in the NRL bunker, he was handed his marching orders to take a seat in the change room for ten minutes.
In fairness to Gee - who was named the best referee in the game last year when he was rewarded with officiating the grand final bertween the Penrith Panthers and Brisbane Broncos - he is acting on orders from the NRL who have made it clear there will be zero tolerance for contact on kickers.
And while zero tolerance is the correct approach when it comes to this action that could potentially ruin a kicker's season or worse, there does need to be a line drawn between what is worthy of a penalty, and what is worthy of further action.
In Grant's case on Saturday evening, a penalty would have been more than sufficient for the contact made which was soft, leg on leg, and saw Grant looking in the other direction as he searched for the ball down field.
And yes, it had to be a penalty, but anything more than that is complete overkill, with the NRL clearly continuing to put their referees under pressure to stamp any pressure on kickers out of the game.
It's an easy comparison now to make to high tackles, but there are certain high shots where mitigating factors play a role that will see offending players able to stay on the field.
There is absolutely zero reason it shouldn't be the same for contact with kickers.
Grant looked bemused to say the least when he was put in the sin bin, and there is little surprise.
Pressure on kickers is one of the most important elements of an NRL game, but if Grant's sin bin is the new baseline, then it will be all but impossible for defenders to put pressure on rival kickers even done correctly, meaning halfbacks and five-eighths - or other players kicking - will have all the time in the world to direct the ball wherever they want.
Grant admitted post-game that he was shocked by the call for him to head to the sin bin, with referee Grant Atkins citing a "lack of duty of care."
The Melbourne dummy half also urged the NRL to not completely remove kick pressure from the game.
โI was a bit shocked,โ Grant said during the post-game press conference.
โI had no intention of going in with any intent to hurt Atkinson.
โI just went to put kick pressure on, which is a big part of the game and you can't lose it.
โWe don't want to lose it. If you look I was going to put kick pressure on and looked away to take myself away from him to not make any contact.
โBut he's obviously jumped and kick momentum took him forward and brushed his leg.
โI was a bit shocked but can't change it now. But we can't lose kick pressure in the game. It is a big part of the game and we don't want to lose it.โ
Of course, the big issue going forward now will be consistency around the issue.
If Grant's incident was cause for a sin bin, then every incident where even the most minor of contact is made with a kickers legs going forward will also need to be sin binned, and more serious incidents simply will have to be sent off.
It's something coach Craig Bellamy was acutely aware of, calling on the NRL to enforce the same level of rules moving forward.
โI think with any rules all we have got is consistency,โ Bellamy said.
โThat's the mark now. You touch his leg, doesn't matter how hard, you go to the bin.โ
Opposition coach Craig Fitzgibbon himself was unsure if incidents like that have been sin binned previously, and admitted he would be less than impressed if the penalty had been blown against his side.
"I don't know. Have the other examples of that been sin binned?" Asked Craig Fitzgibbon.
"I'm not sure. If that happened to use, you'd probably be sitting there going 'come on', but it's nice to get one."
In even stranger news, the match review committee have upheld the version of events on field, with Grant slapped with a Grade 1 dangerous contact charge - he will only risk an increased fine if he heads to the judiciary, and could probably find about a hundred similar incidents that haven't been charged.
On the consistency front however, the NRL, who are known for their crackdowns in officiating during various periods in the last couple of years, now simply must continue this crackdown.
And this time, they can't let it end, because consistency is far too important, with the self-inflicted problem being created now by Grant's totally unwarranted sin bin.
Unless Graham Annesley uses his footy briefing on Monday to say otherwise.
