3 minute read

St George Illawarra coach Anthony Griffin has cast his mind towards State of Origin while assessing the impact of the NRL's sin-bin edict.

St George Illawarra coach Anthony Griffin has forecast an 11-a-side State of Origin contest if the NRL's tougher stance on high tackles continues into next month.

An NRL-record 14 players were sin-binned and three sent off during Magic Round in Brisbane.

The sudden rise has come as part of a two-pronged crackdown across the game on high tackles and repeated ruck infringements, with the NRL desperate to eradicate dangerous contact and the deliberate slow-down of attack.

Griffin's Dragons played with 12 men for the majority of their 44-18 loss to Melbourne on Sunday, centre Tyrell Fuimaono sent off in the 12th minute for a high shot that left Ryan Papenhuyzen motionless on the Suncorp Stadium turf.

Canberra prop Josh Papalii was also sent off on Saturday for a high shot while Gold Coast's Herman Ese'ese's rush of blood in the round's final game saw a third player marched in the same round for the first time in 25 years.

The stage was set on Friday night with eight sin-bins across two games, six of those for professional fouls and ruck infringements.

The move elicited a range of reactions from coaches and Griffin was calm but pointed when assessing the state of the game.

"Today it's a sin-bin, a week ago it wasn't," he said.

"Maybe in three weeks' time it won't be either. As long as they're consistent.

"We've got to get through an Origin series ... if they're going to be happy to have 11 on the field in Origin then I'll be happy with it."

No stranger to the judiciary, Josh McGuire could face more time on the sidelines after the two first-half incidences.

But his coach was puzzled as to why his low tackle on Josh Addo-Carr, which left the winger clutching at his knee, was penalised at all.

"I don't understand that one; we don't coach him to do that, he doesn't know what a hip-drop is," Griffin said.

"You've got to be able to tackle someone and the legs will sometimes get tangled up, so I want to get some clarification on that."

Raiders coach Ricky Stuart and Canterbury opposite Trent Barrett had led the chorus of disapproval on Saturday, lamenting that the game could lose its brutal edge and that high impact was inevitable in a collision sport.

But Sydney Roosters coach Trent Robinson and veteran pair Wayne Bennett and Craig Bellamy called for patience, recognising the need to limit high contact and only critical of the sudden, mid-season instigation of the crackdown.

Robinson stressed players need an off-season to re-learn how to tackle low.

"I've heard some people say 'it's not the game I remember' - just calm down, we'll get there and get it right," he said.

"There's been an over-compensation (this weekend) that's easy to see but we need to tackle lower, we can't just loosely have head highs and go, 'I didn't mean it'.

"We need to get better at not hitting others in the head."