The NRL followed through on their promise to come down harder on foul play in Magic Round, with officials sin-binning 14 players and sending off three across eight games.
The reaction from the rugby league community has been largely negative after referees were heavy-handed on any head high contact throughout the round.
After rolling out the new rules during one of the “showpiece” weekends of the year, The Daily Telegraph’s David Riccio believes the NRL should have chosen another time to introduce the crackdown.
“I can completely understand where the NRL was coming from, but I will say one thing, in relation to the weekend of choice to come down on this,” Riccio said on SEN 1170 Breakfast.
“V’Landys has come in and said he wanted this implemented last week, and perhaps doing it and coming down hard last week would have been better if it had been followed through, instead of at the showpiece event.
“This was a weekend where families drove from far away to not just watch one game, but three or four games and it certainly turned into a different spectacle.”
Riccio told Andrew Voss that he doubts Peter V’Landys will backflip on the crackdown despite the overwhelming negative feedback.
“V’Landys has been unapologetic with this stance,” Riccio said.
“Speaking to him over the weekend, he spoke about, ‘Short-term pain for long-term gain’, the game will not survive if we don’t take this step according to him.
“I have no doubt it will continue. I don’t think we’ll see any changes.”
Riccio believes the NRL is “future proofing” itself with the crackdown to try and lower concussion rates and any potential lawsuits that could follow as a result.
“Make no mistake, this is the game future proofing itself against lawsuits, like with seen in other sports – most notably the NFL,” Riccio said.
“Compensation claims for concussion (in the NFL) has reached one billion dollars.
“There is no denying that the game is attempting to protect itself.”
Listen to the full chat with Riccio below.