St George Illawarra Dragons coach Shane Flanagan and his Sydney Roosters' counterpart Trent Robinson have suggested changes need to be made around kick-offs in a bid to protect players from concussion.
The calls came after yet another sickening incident during the first play of Thursday's ANZAC Day clash at Allianz Stadium, with Moses Suli suffering Grade 1 concussion symptoms in a collision with Jared Waerea-Hargreaves.
The Sydney Roosters' prop, bringing the ball back strongly, ran into a tackle with Suli going straight to ground and clearly being knocked out before he hit the ground.
The latest incident follows recent calls to ban the kick-off in a bid to protect players from the sickening full speed collisions, with the NFL in the United States already making changes to the same area of their own code.
Flanagan said the loss of Suli directly impacted his side in the blowout loss, and admitted he is unsure of the answer to replace kick-offs or reduce the impact of concussions.
“It's a terrible way to start a game, and we did miss him because he's powerful from the back of the field. We couldn't win that battle from the back of the field and we were always kicking from inside our 40 [metre zone],” Flanagan said during his post-match press conference.
“We want to play this really tough gladiator sport, and we want to get down there – especially off kick-offs – and have really good contact with front-rowers.
“But we see it too often. I don't know the answer, but we see it too often.
“When it happens to one of your players, it's not nice to see. I don't know how we stop it, unless we start with a play the ball, and that's not something I'd like to see.
“In the modern game, we can't have these concussions. We need to look after the players."
Robinson agreed with Flanagan in loving kick-offs, suggesting they make a statement about games, but said the sport is getting to a point where a shift is needed.
The NRL have attempted that with the introduction of new rules encouraging short kick-offs and short drop outs, but the Roosters' boss - under considerably less pressure than he was seven days ago after his side ran up 60 points on the Dragons - said that is simply isn't enough.
“It's a really hard one because I love kick-offs because they set a statement to how we wanted to play today,” Trent Robinson said.
“But we don't want to see that for Moses [Suli].
“I think we can see that we're getting to the point where it needs to shift. I think they tried to do it through the short kick-offs, but it's not enough.
“Field position is still a really big part of the game, so you need to get down there. I think we're getting closer to a change soon.”
Despite a ten-day turnaround, Suli will miss at least the Dragons' next game - a local derby next Sunday against the Cronulla Sharks - under the NRL's mandatory 11-day stand down policy.
Max Feagai is his most likely replacement for the Round 9 contest.
