We’ve just started round 2 and it’s already looking ominous that this ‘roll ball’ crackdown is going to cause some issues.
It’s not like we didn’t see this coming. The NRL was vocal pre-season that they were going to crack down this year on incorrect play the balls to stop teams like Penrith (who have been notorious for it) gaining an advantage by rolling the ball under the foot and getting over the advantage line quicker. And if you take that at face value, it looks like a good initiative.
The issue is what we always see with these crackdowns and that’s inconsistency. We’ve seen this in recent times with high contact, where players were being sent to the bin left, right and centre, and towards the back end of the year they were simply penalising the exact same (if not worse) incidents. Even in these games when they’re pulling up these ‘incorrect’ play the balls, the set straight after you see the exact same play the ball and yet the whistle remains in the pocket.
I understand the NRL wouldn’t want to pull up every single incident, and likely just the obvious ones, to avoid turning an NRL game into an NFL game. But it’s these inconsistencies we always see in our game that leave fans scratching their heads. I can just imagine it being semi final time and one team have a try taken off them for a ‘roll ball’, only to see the other team score the match winner where the play the ball didn’t touch the foot. It’s a certainty to happen.
