With the debate around disciplinary in Super League raging on, Leigh Leopards head coach Adrian Lam has proposed a resolution.
Quite simply, Lam wants it to be a case where if there is any doubt about head contact then the player should stay on the field and not be sin binned.
After discussing the current trend of gamesmanship and the seemingly increasing number of cards and bans for head contact, the Leigh Leopards’ boss signed off on the topic with a clear initiative.
He argued: “I’m not a fan of 13 versus 12 or 13 versus 11. It’s too hard, it’s too difficult. So I think if any of those yellow cards are that 50-50, let’s leave the player on the field.”
It’s perhaps too simple a solution with the complexities around the RFL’s legal battle regarding brain health but he’s certainly right that the sport is at its best when it is 13 against 13 and last week’s clash between Wigan Warriors and Hull KR showed that. The arm wrestle was intense but two periods of the Robins playing a man down saw the intensity bubble burst.
Leigh Leopards boss offers up his views on gamesmanship in Super League
Credit: Imago Images
Leigh Leopards did go down to 12 last week though and it saw Adrian Lam sweating a suspension, despite his belief that John Asiata should have never been shown a yellow card in the first place. Lam was asked about how pleased he was his captain had avoided a ban and he used it to talk more on the current uncertainty teams have when going to the Match Review Panel.
“It’s common sense really,” he argued.
“He should never have been in the sin-bin, in our opinion here. It’s an area where I’d like to just say we want to see every team play with 13 players. We don’t want to see yellow cards. It’s the last thing we need at the moment. So some of the sin bins seem like it’s unnecessary at the moment and I was nervous about John’s sin bin to be honest. It shouldn’t have been a sin bin, penalty was sufficient but yeah just grateful that he’s in the squad.”
He was also very vocal about the fact that he does not and would not coach for players to stay down and potentially ‘milk’ penalties as he accepted that discipline is going to shape the play-off places.
Credit: SWpix
Lam said: “No doubt that it’s going to be decided by that in the next couple of weeks. No doubt. But we’ve known that from the start. There’s conversations about laying down. Every club’s doing it, not intentionally. Ours certainly haven’t done it. And as a coach, I don’t promote that. I don’t support that.
“But, you’ve also got to, if you hit someone in the head, you’re going to get sent off or red carded or suspended. It’s as simple as that. There’s no grey area about it. The grey area is that some of the things that I think need to be addressed is just to make sure that if it’s a 50-50, leave the player on the field.
“If there’s no intent to it or whatever it is, there’s different scenarios, there’s different actions that certainly should be graded on and if there’s any head contact, that’s a completely different matter, but if it’s tackling a player in the motion of passing or anything like that, let’s just be smart about it. That’s a simple fix.
“Every coach knows what the rules are. Everyone knows, every player knows that if you get hit in the head it’s going to be a penalty. So, it’s the way that it’s been from the start of the year.”
Interestingly, he backed the RFL though but pleaded with the governing body to help keep players on the field.
“I think the RFL have done a really good job from where we were in the first quarter of the season to the last three quarters of the season. I think there’s been a completely different change up with that. I think there needs to be still some little bit of touching up here and there with if it’s a 50-50, keep the player on the field and review it later on.”
