Canterbury Bulldogs lock Greg Eastwood defends tackling style after NRL warning

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c-b-b

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Canterbury officials have been urged to address Greg Eastwood over his tackling technique in a bid to prevent further serious leg injuries to opposition players.

Fairfax Media revealed on Tuesday that Eastwood would be issued with a concerning act notification after Benji Marshall became the third player injured in a tackle in which the Bulldogs lock used his legs to bring them to the ground.


Incident: Greg Eastwood locks his leg around Benji Marshall at ANZ Stadium on Saturday night. Photo: Channel 9
The NRL's match review co-ordinator Michael Buettner said he expected the club to take up the issue with him.

Marshall is expected to learn on Wednesday if he needs ankle surgery after being taken from the field in the 49th minute of last Saturday night's 11-10 loss to Canterbury and Buettner said the way Eastwood wrapped his leg behind the St George Illawara halfback's knee created an unacceptable risk of injury.
"You can see that he uses his legs to bring down Benji Marshall," Buettner said. "We find that to be concerning in the fact that there is an unacceptable risk of injury to the tackled player.

"We will be informing the Bulldogs of this and hopefully they will address it with Greg Eastwood and we don't see any further actions similar to this."
Buettner said players were allowed to use their legs in tackles but the NRL will consider outlawing the tactic at the end of the season after a spate of injuries, including Penrith rookie Bryce Cartwright and Cronulla fullback Michael Gordon suffering broken legs in similar tackles by Eastwood.

Canterbury centre Tim Lafai also suffered a knee injury in a leg lock by South Sydney prop Thomas Burgess, while Bulldogs halfback Moses Mbye used his leg to perform a throw on Dragons forward George Rose after he was held up in a three-man tackle on Saturday.

"As long as they have a hand or hands on the tackled player they are able to use it [their leg] but it is the putting of that tackled player in a vulnerable position which is most concerning to us and that unacceptable risk of injury," Buettner told nrl.com.

"It is one of those things that we really want to focus on and I guess monitor as the season goes on."

Eastwood, who went to school with Marshall and has played alongside him for New Zealand, insisted he did not practice the technique and was "surprised" to learn via a Fairfax Media report that his tackling style had come under scrutiny from the match review committee.

"My wife saw it on Facebook from some website and she showed me," he said on Tuesday. "I was a bit annoyed but I guess they are just trying to look after the welfare of the players.

"It was one of those tackles which was unfortunate in that his legs sort of got tangled up and he bent the wrong way. It is not a technique, when you are tired you just try to get someone to the ground and that is the way it happened.

"It was just a bad outcome but you can't just be changing the rules every time someone gets hurt. It will just end up being touch soon. This is a tough sport and not every tackle is going to be a good technique. That is why the boys play the game because they love it and it is one of the hardest games in the world."

The 28-year-old said Marshall's footwork made him hard to tackle and he had immediately signalled to referee Gavin Morris to stop the game as soon as he realised the Dragons star was badly injured.

"I know Benji from school and the Kiwis, and I never go out intentionally to hurt anyone," Eastwood said.

"When he is bouncing around in the middle there he is hard to get hold of and he got past me, and I just tried to get him to the ground and he just ended up in an awkward position.

"I just remember trying to get him to the ground and trying to get hold of his legs and my legs just got twisted up in his. I just remember him going back the wrong way but you can't go banning every tackle every time someone gets hurt."

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...rl-warning-20150915-gjn8cr.html#ixzz3lrj6BJOj
 

Daustin

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they seem to outlaw things when a big player gangs up on a little player but if it was luke brooks doing it to benji it would go unpunished, its called a contact sport for a reason and beast is exactly right. dave smith is a mong
 

Indiandog

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This is the dumbest of all dumb moves coming out of this joke of an organisation.

I will brake every bone in my body if i play the game at first grade level and get tackled by Eastwood or Frank and surely I will be dead if Kas happens to falls over me.

This means I shouldn't be playing the contact sport and play touch footy rather NRL telling Eastwood to change his tackling technique.
 

Bulldogz82

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Here we go again!! A player gets hurt by a legal tackle and they want to outlaw it. It happens every bloody weekend in most games, get a fkn grip nrl!!
 

Malla

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I actually like this. This is a very dangerous move and it actually started at the Storm. Jeremy Smith was someone that was very good at it, and he still does it to this day.

I think at times though when you're struggling to get someone down you'll put the leg out and push him over. That's what Eastwood tried to do and a lot of smaller guys do it to the big guys. They should outlaw this and bring back the shoulder charge.
 

CroydonDog

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This is the dumbest of all dumb moves coming out of this joke of an organisation.

I will brake every bone in my body if i play the game at first grade level and get tackled by Eastwood or Frank and surely I will be dead if Kas happens to falls over me.

This means I shouldn't be playing the contact sport and play touch footy rather NRL telling Eastwood to change his tackling technique.
That is kind of a funny visual though.

You could be the first former kabbadi player to make the switch? :grinning:
 

CroydonDog

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I actually like this. This is a very dangerous move and it actually started at the Storm. Jeremy Smith was someone that was very good at it, and he still does it to this day.

I think at times though when you're struggling to get someone down you'll put the leg out and push him over. That's what Eastwood tried to do and a lot of smaller guys do it to the big guys. They should outlaw this and bring back the shoulder charge.
I tend to agree with you. I think tackling using the legs has the potential for more injury than the shoulder charge.
 

Indiandog

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That is kind of a funny visual though.

You could be the first former kabbadi player to make the switch? :grinning:

to be honest kabbadi players might not be too atheletic but are known for very strong bones and joints.
 

Izzy Forreal

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Greg Eastwood debuted with the Bulldogs on 21 March 2009 and has never had a thug reputation - he could almost be called a cleanskin. So after one very legal tackle that had an unfortunatre ending the NRL is jumping up and down pointing the finger at the Bulldogs... AGAIN!

But on the other hand we have "The Untouchables" aka The Roosters. In their team they have Dylan Napa and Kane Evans; two of the best cheap shot merchants in the game. And you can safely bet next week's mortgage payment on them putting on the head shots punctuated with the odd shoulder charge and nothing will be done.

Double standards? Who said that?
 

Shnissss

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Greg Eastwood debuted with the Bulldogs on 21 March 2009 and has never had a thug reputation - he could almost be called a cleanskin. So after one very legal tackle that had an unfortunatre ending the NRL is jumping up and down pointing the finger at the Bulldogs... AGAIN!

But on the other hand we have "The Untouchables" aka The Roosters. In their team they have Dylan Napa and Kane Evans; two of the best cheap shot merchants in the game. And you can safely bet next week's mortgage payment on them putting on the head shots punctuated with the odd shoulder charge and nothing will be done.

Double standards? Who said that?
It's funny the article calls out that lafai was injured in the same way earlier in the year yet there was no call back then to change the rules
 

dogbone

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It's funny the article calls out that lafai was injured in the same way earlier in the year yet there was no call back then to change the rules
That's because Eastwood has 'form'. And by that they mean he has tackled and injured two other blokes in the last 3 seasons in tackles that look nothing, absolutely nothing like what happened on Saturday. It's a bloody disgrace!

Greg should sue that journalist and the SMH.
 

dogluva

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wow! how can they use this in the article and say it was anything other than an accident/bad luck?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU7BYFR9RIk
Just goes to show how dumb they are. So now because Eastwoods' body has rolled around onto Cartwrights legs ( whilst he performed the tackle from behind him and around the upper leg/ hip area)they say he was using his legs. Please.
 
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