Just watched yesterday's game. Ok well most of it. Alright about 30 minutes if truth be told.
My major observation apart from the boredom was how often now players are using the head injury to stop or disrupt a game.
Look don't get me wrong, I'm fully behind player protection and head injuries are nothing to belittle, but in the name of sweet holy lord (and all those other daft things we say so it is) a player gets dispossessed and a tap on the ankle and down they go clutching their head to stop the flow of the game and the opponent attacking. Jesus the black card was introduced because of cynicism, but this has gotten extreme. If action isn't taken soon it's gonna take over the game completely. I know everyone is afraid to speak out because it'll be controversial, but either I'm awakening or it really is getting more obvious. It's just something I've noticed lately and actually watched the ref fall for it maybe a dozen times or more in yesterday's game and as I said at the start I only watched less than half the game.
If a player goes down holding their head and as clearly happened a number of times yesterday, they get their leg or ankle attended to. it should be a yellow card for deliberately disrupting play or a black card for cynical play acting. I'd even be in favour of retrospective punishment if it's caught on camera and not dealt with properly at the time by the ref.
When I look at the tackles that Jamie or Jamar for example take without going down and don't get as much as a free in their favour the majority of the time and then look at these, it's really embarrassing. That's not to say our lads don't do it, but that's alright so it is!