Berkeley_Eagle
Current Status: 24/7 Manly Fan
THIS is the one-paragraph email from referees boss Bill Harrigan to the 16 coaches that will either make or break the NRL season.
After a week of debate over a wrestling crackdown ordered by commission chairman John Grant, Harrigan and his offsider Stuart Raper sent just four short sentences as notification of a stronger policing of the play-the-ball area.
It all starts in today's Anzac Day showdown at Allianz Stadium with the referees' bosses promising to penalise anything that impacts on the speed of the play-the-ball.
They have also warned coaches that the 10m rule will be strictly enforced.
There are now genuine fears that one of the NRL's showpiece games of the season, Roosters v Dragons, will be ruined by a bombardment of penalties.
Coaches are angry they were not consulted before commission chairman Grant's kneejerk reaction to criticism of the game by Knights coach Wayne Bennett, whose own team plays the most boring brand of football in the NRL.
Roosters coach Brian Smith said the increased amount of penalties could be a turn-off for fans.
"I reckon the whole game will be really disappointed if - in the two games that are on - we have some sort of plethora of penalties that are just completely the opposite of what we've been seeing for a while," Smith said.
And Storm captain Cameron Smith, whose team play the Warriors at AAMI Park this evening, told Sky Sports Radio the impending crackdown will slow the game down even further.
"If they're going to try and do that there's going to be plenty of penalties, which I thought is what all the fans don't want to see," Smith said.
"They want a free-flowing game and ... all the players and coaches want that as well. I'm not too sure why people are worried about this or blowing up this whole sort of slowing down the speed of the game. I think the game is travelling pretty good at the moment."
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http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/plethora-of-penalties-feared-as-nrl-set-to-crackdown-on-play-the-ball-infringements-and-ten-metre-rule/story-e6frexnr-1226337472147
