Furious James Graham wants rugby league to “embarrass” players who do this

James Graham has called on rugby league to embarrass players who try and milk penalties.

This came as he commentated on the NRL this weekend for Triple M Radio as a furious Graham hit out at those for milking penalties.

“They know they are going to gain a competitive advantage,” he said.

“We’re a product of our environment so players know the environment, they know how they can gain a competitive advantage. You take it away.

“I think now what we need to do if we want to solve this problem which is such an issue, take it away from players so matter what it’s at the referee’s discretion. If the referee calls a penalty it’s a penalty, if he or she doesn’t it doesn’t matter how long you stay down for or if it’s a sin bin it’s at the next stoppage.

“We’re going to miss instances of foul play.”

He then went on to say the sport should “embarrass them into conforming”.

“Bring on a stretcher and make them leave on a stretcher,” he said.

“Imagine that, Whitehead stays down and the referee blows time off and the medicab comes and they’re lying down and the neck brace comes on and erring on the side of caution, send them to hospital and they’ll stop.”

That is not the only thing Graham has been outspoken on.

The hip drop tackle has been spoken about a lot recently.

Jackson Hastings identified it has something that needed stamping out of the game this week whilst James Batchelor was sin binned for a hip drop tackle in Friday’s Hull derby.

There was one in the NRL this weekend as well but it was penalised immediately which left James Graham furious as he commentated for Triple M Radio.

He said: “That’s a joke, that is not a hip drop. I said this last week, we can’t be rugby union.

“You can’t get all the way up the field to tackle five and then penalise something that happened on tackle one.

“I know it’s a tackle that we have to get out of the game but we can’t be rugby union.

“If it’s foul play then penalise it. This is a joke, it happened last week. The NRL needs to have a look at it.

“It’s clear, it either needs bunker intervention but five tackles later, we are better than that as a game.”