Growl of approval for return of the biff

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Berkeley_Eagle

Current Status: 24/7 Manly Fan
Growl of approval for return of the biff
Peter FitzSimons
August 30, 2011
http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/growl-of-approval-for-return-of-the-biff-20110829-1jiio.html

The penalties are in but what do men and women really want from rugby league?

"RUGBY football," P. G. Wodehouse wrote in 1930, "is a game [where] … each side is allowed to put in a certain amount of assault and battery and do things to its fellow man which, if done elsewhere, would result in 14 days without the option, coupled with some strong remarks from the Bench."

So too with rugby league, and never more so than on Friday night in the game between Manly and Melbourne where what everyone thought was a wild melee broke out and two players, Adam Blair and Glenn Stewart, were sent from the field. But call that a brawl? This is a brawl. For just as the two were crossing the boundary line that brought them back into the civilised world, they again started throwing punches in an act of spontaneous combustion in which the teams, including players from both reserve benches, were going at each other like 30 cats in a sack. The fight has been the talk of the eastern seaboard since.

But beneath the outcry, and the many, mostly female, talkback callers expressing outrage, there has been a quiet, visceral and exclusively male growl of approval. After years of calls to "bring back the biff'', here it is.

One of the few to say out loud what many think has been the former league hard man Mark Geyer: "The fact is that no one got injured, there were no king hits, there was no one from behind hitting anyone illegally. There's been a total overreaction in the media. To say it's the worst thing in the history of rugby league is total BS." (And he's right.)

More seriously, that dichotomy between female and male views is difficult for the NRL. Engaged with the AFL in the fight of its life for the hearts, minds and bums on seats of the Sydney heartland, it is not sexist to say that the negative view of mothers, particularly, about league culture is a problem for administrators. But against that, it is the same tough physical confrontation that league offers - the closest football code to tribal warfare of long ago - that is one of the game's primary assets against AFL.

So how to proceed? The short answer is the first brawl was no big deal. As long as football is played, there will be the odd donnybrook. What is damaging the NRL is the second brawl.

Who started that brawl? Neither Blair nor Stewart. You can play it again and again on slowmo and you can't pin it on either.

After all the hand-wringing, fines and finger-wagging is over, the NRL will need a system whereby when two men are sent off, one leaves to one side of the field, and the other to the other. The odd brawl on that side of the white line they can live with - it is the brawl this side of the line that does the real damage.

Peter FitzSimons is "tragically proud" of being the only Wallaby sent off for violence against the All Blacks.



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/growl-of-approval-for-return-of-the-biff-20110829-1jiio.html#ixzz1WSC0DBXO
 
No king hits?

For one Kingy wasn't even playing.

But seriously, what about Blair's uppercut on Lussick while he was being restrained? That would be called a king hit in my book.

Ant then there was the 72 minute 'king hit' by Slater on DCE while he was onthe ground. That would be called a king hit again in my book.
 
Blair's wasn't a king hit, it was a cheap shot as Lussick was pinned by Cam Smith. Lussick got square when Foran and Robbo held Blair and he threw a couple of cheap shots back.
 
Team P W L PD Pts
3 3 0 48 6
4 3 1 28 6
3 2 1 10 6
4 2 2 39 4
3 2 1 28 4
3 2 1 15 4
3 2 1 14 4
2 1 1 13 4
2 1 1 6 4
3 2 1 -3 4
3 1 2 0 2
3 1 2 -5 2
3 1 2 -15 2
3 1 2 -22 2
3 1 2 -36 2
2 0 2 -56 2
3 0 3 -64 0
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