MARK ‘SPUDD’ CARROLL: Scott Sorensen, Siosiua Taukeiaho’s sin bins show how ridiculous NRL crackdown has been

They still call it rugby league but I’m wondering if it’s the same game I used to play after a ridiculous weekend of Bunker and on-field decisions.

Match officials used to be sponsored by OPSM and perhaps it’s time we renewed the deal because I can’t believe some of the calls they came up with.

And judging by the number of messages I receive during games, neither can the fans.

There was something like 18 sin-binnings across the round.

Crazy.

Yet we saw the Bulldogs’ Sitili Tupouniua knee someone in the head and stay on the field!

Most experts thought it was an instant send-off and it’s hard to disagree.

The next night the Manly-Penrith game was halted midway through a set to examine an incident that happened in the previous set.

Sea Eagles forward Siosiua Taukeiaho was then sent to the bin for a hit that would not have raised an eyebrow in an under-11s match.

Not one player reacted to it at the time and it was not mentioned during the match call – that’s how bloody innocuous it was.

Yet a player was marched and possession handed over to the Panthers at a critical stage of the game.

A few minutes later Penrith’s Scott Sorensen was binned after trying to stop Nathan Brown charging in off the back fence.

He was simply bracing himself for impact, doing his best to protect not only himself but the ball carrier.

Now he is looking at a stint on the sideline after being charged by the match review committee.

As I written here before, I am all for protecting players’ heads because we only get one brain.

But rugby league is a brutal sport where heavy collision is part of the deal.

Every player goes into a game knowing that. That’s what you sign up for.

The way it’s going we will soon have 10 on 10 contests as nervy match officials with no idea of contact consistently overreact.

NRL, please get your act together before fans walk away for good.

AND DON’T GET ME STARTED

So the big bad Bears are back on the road again.

After 27 years in the NRL wilderness, foundation club North Sydney will be revived in the form of the Western Bears, Perth Bears, WA Bears - or whatever tag they come you with - in two years’ time.

I don’t really care what they call them but I do have one major request.

If you want this new entity to make a statement right from the get-go, then the first game has to be against Manly at famous old North Sydney Oval.

I can hear the fans in Perth coming at me already, arguing the inaugural match in the new club’s history should be played in Western Australia.

It’s a fair point and the NRL will more than likely be on board with it, but that doesn’t mean it should happen.

Can you imagine the images and emotion a packed North Sydney Oval would deliver the game.

The Bears and Sea Eagles hate each other.

It’s not some made-up marketing wank, it’s genuine.

This is a fair dinkum local derby.

Manly was formed as a breakaway from North Sydney in 1947 and the rivalry was intense from the get-go.

For half a century they went at each other, trading players and barbs in equal proportions.

And for most of that time, Manly was busy collecting premierships while the Bears picked up wooden spoons.

That only added to the animosity.

I played in a few Manly-Norths derbies and it was some of the toughest football I encountered (especially playing on that bloody cricket pitch of theirs!).

It was sad when it all came to an end in 1999 and the two clubs reluctantly combined forces to form the ill-fated Northern Eagles joint venture.

As someone at Manly said at the time, it was like going to bed with Miss World and waking up with Miss Piggy.

It was a disaster for both parties and was thankfully euthanised after just a couple of years, leaving North Sydney out in the cold and out of the NRL.

For the best part of three decades, their fans have either drifted away from the game or followed the red and blacks in the NSW Cup while dreaming of a return to the big time.

That dream now looks like becoming a reality and what better way to kick-start things than by pitting the two sworn enemies against each other at grand old Bear Park in the first round of the 2027 season.

I know we could fit more fans in at Allianz Stadium and Perth will understandably want to host opening night, but I’d love it to be held at North Sydney Oval as a way of thanking those fans who stayed the distance with one of the game’s oldest clubs.

If they do, I’ll be the first one there, leaning against the old Moreton Bay fig and celebrating a truly special night in rugby league history.