The current trend of gamesmanship in Super League is here to stay according to pundit Mike ‘Stevo’ Stephenson, who has explained why it has become so prominent in the sport.
It’s a hot topic at the moment and it was certainly brought front and centre last weekend with a number of controversial sin bins that came following lengthy video referee reviews.
Willie Peters had suggested that coaches were actively coaching players to stay down whilst Sam Burgess offered his solution of standing players down for a week if they’re seen to stay down when earning a penalty.
The issue has now been discussed by former Sky Sports Super League commentators Eddie Hemmings and Mike ‘Stevo’ Stephenson on the pair’s eponymous ‘Eddie and Stevo’ podcast.
It was Hemmings who raised the subject as he highlighted the yellow card shown to Matty Lees for a late shot on Josh Drinkwater, an incident that had fired up current Sky Sports’ pundit Jon Wilkin.
Hemmings explained: “Matty Lees was yellow carded for a shot on Josh Drinkwater. As he’s going off the field, Lees can clearly be seen to ask Drinkwater why he wasn’t leaving the field too, if the injury was so bad.
“I’m sorry to say it but we do seem to have a problem here. I never thought we’d see it because you see other sports and there is a bit of gamesmanship going on. I never thought we’d see it in rugby league.”
To that, Stevo has highlighted where the problem has come from and why it is here to stay.
Football to blame for Super League gamesmanship issue
Copyright: xMalcolmxBrycex PSI-17949-0011
Stephenson pointed to the ‘top level of football’, the Premier League being the example in England, as being the source of the trend of diving which has in turn trickled down into Super League, such is its influence.
Stevo argued: “Well I have to go towards another sport Eddie because when you look at what is occurring at the top level of football, where if a moth is flying past one of these players, they seem to go down. And on the replay, you’ll see that the man never touched him, never got anywhere near him.
“It’s all this sort of play-acting that they’ve brought into at a high level of professional sports. And people may argue about it, but it comes down the list. It comes down to the youngsters playing at that level.
“I’ve seen it coming through for a long, long it creeps into our game at the ages of 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12. 12 years of age. Because they see these superstars who go down if the wind’s going in the wrong direction.
“It’s something that we can’t solve, because they are heroes, and we also have heroes in our game.”
It was then put to Stevo that the issue was a societal one, as opposed to strictly Super League, but that was also rebuffed as the former Great Britain international pointed to the elephant in the room surrounding rugby league at the moment.
He explained: “Well it’s part of it we’ve also got the problem idea as well we’re trying to eliminate with people ex-players suing the game itself.
“They’re trying to say that the game itself did not protect those players so the officials are trying to make sure that it’s as clean as possible and some players don’t take any notice.”
With referees forced to be so over-officious to avoid any further legal complications and players taking inspiration from other sports, it seems like there is no end in sight for this gamesmanship issue.
