Rugby league: Nathan Brown suggests NRL loophole needs to be looked at after Reece Walsh has suspension reduced

Warriors coach Nathan Brown. Photo / Photosport

Warriors coach Nathan Brown has suggested the NRL needs to look at its policies around player suspensions after three players, including Warriors fullback Reece Walsh, had their suspensions reduced.

The NRL came under fire for perceived inconsistencies and creating mass confusion after Melbourne Storm hooker Brandon Smith and Walsh were retrospectively able to count All Stars absences to serve their respective bans.

The decisions came after South Sydney Rabbitohs fullback Latrell Mitchell was able to use the game as one of the six on his suspension for a late shot on Sydney Roosters centre Joseph Manu late last season.

Walsh, who accepted a two-game ban in the off-season for a drug possession charge, will be able to play in round two for the Warriors after sitting out the All Stars clash, while Smith will be available for the Storm in round one after being suspended for one-match at the end of last year after being captured on video with a white-powder substance.

Unlike Mitchell, Walsh and Smith were serving suspensions for off-field incidents.

The decisions infuriated Canberra Raiders coach Ricky Stuart, however, as he was told before the All Stars game that it could not count towards a player's suspension quota for off-field incidents, and therefore allowed winger Jordan Rapana – serving a one-match ban for drink driving – to play for the Māori All Stars.

Rapana was handed a two-game suspension for a shoulder charge during the match, but will be able to serve his suspensions concurrently and will miss just the two games to start the year.

"From a club point of view and a personal point of view, obviously it's pleasing for us and it's pleasing for Melbourne, but on the other hand Canberra didn't get the right end of the stick there, did they?" Brown said.

"For our point of view, once Latrell got what he got, I didn't think the game had much choice. It's probably one of those things where people have all these different rules for different things and they just make it difficult for themselves."

There is some precedent in the most recent decision.

Rabbitohs and Queensland forward Jai Arrow was suspended for two games last year for a Covid-19 breach, with one of those matches able to be served in State of Origin. However, in that case the infringement came while Arrow was in camp with Queensland.

"Whether you had an on-field discretion or an off-field discretion, can they just make it a blanket rule that you can count the suspension? Because at the end of the day, the All Stars game is as important to those cultures as Origin is to a kid from Queensland.

"They're all important, so just make one blanket rule and the game won't find itself in trouble. People try to get too clever and too smart and come up with all these different things, it puts people like (NRL chief executive) Andrew Abdo in a really difficult position Let's be honest, it puts him in a bad spot. One blanket rule that we can all live by – whether it's on-field or off-field – just stick with one principle.

"I think what we did get out of it that the game did get right was that the (All Stars Game) is important to those cultures; that's the pleasing thing. I think the way the guys played and the passion they played with in the game, I think that again showed what it means to people. It's an important game, and that's the one positive thing that's come out of it from the game's point of view.

"For us, great. For Melbourne, great. But you have to feel for Canberra with what happened to them."