NRL news 2023 | Andrew Johns theory for injury crisis as Adam Doueihi, Jayden Brailey sidelined long-term EXCLUSIVE
With 22 long-term knee injuries this season, the NRL is facing an injury crisis.
Wests Tigers star Adam Doueihi and Newcastle hooker Jayden Brailey both suffered season-ending ACL injuries in round six as clubs continue to suffer from having multiple players on the sideline.
Speaking on Wide World of Sport’s Immortal Behaviour, rugby league legend Andrew Johns said the cause behind the worsening injury tolls is due to a 20-year evolution in the game.
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“Generally in years gone by coming from behind you would tackle them low, around the knees or lower around the ankles,” he said.
“Now they go high, they grab them above the waist, on the hips, and then lean on them to get on top and that’s where all these hip drops are coming from.
“Tackling techniques over the last 20 years have changed so much.”
Much of the outrage behind the tackling techniques in the modern game, comes from the way wrestling has been implemented.
Tackles like chicken wings, cannonballs and hip drops have all become commonplace in the past few years and Johns believes that comes back to the way clubs train.
“My theory is as a footballer you’re only put on this earth with so many bumps and so many knocks, you don’t want to use them up at training,” he said.
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“They go as hard (as they can) – it’s like anything if one club does it, everyone follows.
“Everyone followed the Melbourne regime and their model of how they trained and how they wrestled, and they’ve been very successful. Part of that is because of the discipline of the wrestling but I hate it, absolutely hate it.
“I think there’s injuries caused at training because you see when the wrestling happens at training, it is full on, it is full on contact and they go that hard at each other.
“I think there was niggles that get picked up there (at training), muscles I’d say get tighter or strained, once they go out … they’re full ball on the field, that’s where these injuries happen.”
Along with knee, hip and hamstring injuries, three players – Sean O’Sullivan, Viliame Kikau and Jaimin Joliffe – have all suffered pectoral problems.
Johns claims this is a new epidemic in rugby league.
“Pecs never happened 30 years ago, I think it’s wrestling but also weight training,” he said.
“But even when I was playing there was heavy weights, really intense, but I can’t remember anyone really tearing their pec.”
Johns also referenced the strict rules around contact at training in the NFL – signed under the organisation’s collective bargaining agreement with the NFL players association - as a potential way of moving forward.
“Someone told me this; in the NFL they have limited contact in training, and when they train it has to be filmed and sent back to the powers that be,” he said.
“I just think there’s too much contact in training.”
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