The two-week suspension of Sharks lock Dale Finucane for a head-clash in last weekโs lost to Penrith has been heavily scrutinised this week, with players and analysts expressing concerns that it creates a grey area around the issue moving forward.
The head clash occurred towards the end of last weekendโs contest, with Finucane escaping any punishment on the field despite a lengthy delay as medical staff assessed Stephen Crichton, who later required plastic surgery.
Penrith co-captain and NSW Blues lock Isaah Yeo admitted he could see both sides of the situation and accepted the onus was largely on defenders to prevent these incidents occurring โ but he is also concerned about how these incidents are judged moving forward.
โI see both sides of it. Iโm close with Dale and respect him a lot, but I also see Stephenโs side,โ Yeo told Zero Tackle.
โBut this is the first suspension weโve seen for a head clash. They labelled it careless. I listened to the arguments โ heโs definitely made contact with the head, and he could have avoided it, but he was just trying to help his team.
โI can see both sides, but (the ruling) makes it all a bit more of a grey area for the future.
โThere will be a lot more scrutiny of it now, but youโd hate to miss a semi-final for something like that.โ
Yeo said that even with a conscious effort to minimise the risk, the pace and intensity of the modern game will make it hard to remove these incidents altogether.
โThereโs always going to be a bit of risk, the game is played at such a high speed,โ Yeo said.
โBut the onus is on the defender as much as possible soโฆ if thereโs any chance you can try and avoid it, thatโs up to the individual (to assess the risk).โ
Not everyone was as pragmatic in their assessment of the suspension, with respected league analyst Phil Gould going a lot harder at the judiciary process.
โPeople asserting authority in defence, coming out of the line because they read the oppositionโฆ has been thrown into turmoil through this ridiculous decision,โ Gould said on his Six Tackles With Gus podcast.
โYou have totally changed the dynamic of our game if people canโt come out of the line and hunt down opposition players carrying the ball. To say the decision to rush the line was careless and itโs not standard technique to make first contact is absolutely ridiculous.โ
The former coach and player cited this yearโs Origin series as an example of the importance of anticipation in modern defence, and asked whether the case would have even been brought to the judiciary were it not for the unfortunate result.
โWe just had a fantastic Origin series โ how many times did we see people race out of the line to try and tackle someone? Thatโs the game, thatโs the risk (the players) understand.โ
โI donโt know where this leaves the game now.
โIf Stephen Crichton wasnโt injured, it was just a heavy collision and both players get up โ do you think weโd have heard of this again?
โItโs the split ear thatโs made the difference. If he hits him three centimetres either side do you think weโd hear about this again?โ
โIf Dale Finucane knocks himself out and Crichton got up would we even be hearing about this?โ
Finucane will miss the Sharksโ next two games โ a crucial clash against South Sydney and a local derby with the Dragons.
