Hull FC interim boss Simon Grix has weighed in on the gamesmanship issue that is blighting Super League at this moment in time. A light has been shone on the problem in recent weeks with some players appearing to stay down after late or high tackles that the on-field referee might have missed.
The pause in play as the player on the floor receives treatment has then allowed video referees to watch footage back of the incident and hand out punishments with yellow and red cards being shown on the back of such instances. On numerous occasions the injured player has been allowed to continue without leaving the field for a head injury assessment or further treatment and there have been questions and accusations of gamesmanship as a result.
The likes of Sam Burgess and Jon Wilkin have been extremely outspoken about the issue over the last couple of weeks in Super League, but the question of what can be done remains unclear. With that in mind, Grix has given his take with the Hull man coming up with some potential solutions to the problem, too.
“There’s too much of the lying down and I see players telling people to stay down,” Grix told Serious About RL when asked about the topic. “It’s a pretty poor look to be fair.
“There’s probably some solutions around how they referee and manage it, but they have to be brave and make what will seem like tough calls at the start to get rid of the behaviour.
“My bit is more the head knock stuff. We’re in this time where we’re really concerned about it and the game is under threat to a degree around the insurance stuff. I don’t think the lads are helping by doing this, carrying on and laying on the floor.
“When people are injured, I get it, but the getting hit a fraction late and laying there knowing they’ll stop the game and look at it and then you get up and play the ball two minutes later and everything’s fine. It’s not a good look for a game that has been so working class, honest and has criticised over sports for that sort of gamesmanship.
“It’s pretty ordinary and I’d like to see a change. There are some solutions and which way they go with it I’m not sure.
Pushed on those solutions for Super League, he added: “I think anyone that stays down and they have to have a penalty and so much attention from the medical staff, they need to leave the field. Whether that’s for a HIA or a minimum period of time, I’m not sure.
“The difficult bit which I’d like to see but it’s tough to call, there are some bits of the game where you know it’s nonsense but then it becomes around the subjective nature of the referee’s decision and knowing when someone is trying to fool him. I’d like a little bit of that, even a yellow card for genuinely feigning injury. It’s a hard one to do.
“I think the other one is getting them off the field if they’re that bad and need to leave the field if they’ve stayed down that long. That might be a start and people might start getting on with it. They’ve got a tough job, the referees. I think when there’s a bad tackle and most of the time they see it. It’s these where you have to go back two plays to stop and look at it, it ends up taking away from a matchday and putting five minutes on the clock. It’s not a good look for our game.”
