Harry Grant questions NRL judiciary system – \u2018A worse offence?\u2019<\/a><\/p>\nCoates calls for protection<\/p>\n
The issue came to a head last weekend when the Broncos repeatedly blocked Storm winger Xavier Coates.<\/p>\n
Kotoni Staggs was penalised once for interference, while other incidents went unsanctioned during Brisbane\u2019s clash with Melbourne.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019d be nice if the refs helped out, but it\u2019s also on myself,\u201d Coates said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI need to get better with that, and if teams want to do that, I need to come up with a plan to counter those attacks that they\u2019re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Storm skipper Harry Grant added weight to Coates\u2019 influence, declaring: \u201cHe\u2019s winning our player of the year by a mile.\u201d<\/p>\n
Roosters wingers also targeted<\/p>\n
The crackdown also follows efforts by South Sydney to disrupt Roosters pair Mark Nawaqanitawase and Daniel Tupou in Round 26.<\/p>\n
Between them, the towering wingers scored 42 tries this season, many coming from aerial raids off pinpoint kicks.<\/p>\n
NRL clubs liaison officer David Fairleigh told coaches the practice would no longer be tolerated.<\/p>\n
Sources confirmed the pre-finals memo made it clear referees had the authority to use the sin bin if deliberate obstruction occurred.<\/p>\n
Wider discipline focus<\/p>\n
The warning was part of a broader reminder about player behaviour in the finals.<\/p>\n
Referees will also order a teammate to play the ball if a player stays down to milk a penalty, with the bunker still able to intervene on illegal play.<\/p>\n
Players using foul language towards referees, or surrounding them aggressively, will also be penalised.<\/p>\n
That message follows the sanctioning of St George Illawarra captain Clint Gutherson last week for dissent.<\/p>\n
Trainer returns<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Panthers trainer Corey Bocking is free to return this weekend after serving a five-match ban.<\/p>\n
Bocking was suspended for running into the path of Jayden Campbell as he lined up a conversion during Round 22 against the Titans.<\/p>\n
He will resume his role on the sidelines for Penrith\u2019s elimination final in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The NRL has issued a stern warning to all eight finals clubs about the use of blocking tactics.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":136563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-136562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nrl","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-national-rugby-league","11":"tag-nationalrugbyleague","12":"tag-nrl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}