But then he added that other clubs were exploiting and bending the rules. "You watch some players come off and they go back on or stay on and get shielded," he said. "And we've got the other way now where blokes are lying down and using a head knock to get a free interchange. There's a bit of a mockery being made of it at the minute." An NRL spokesman said no one had been fined or warned over the concussion rule this year, although Penrith trainers had been asked to undergo more education after Peter Wallace stayed on the field in Wollongong. But he said not all reviews had been completed. There are no plans to enlarge squads at this stage.

Knees up, Uncle Wayne

It's a rugby league perennial that great games tend to have tame aftermaths while mismatches are awash with newsworthy quotes. Is this a co-incidence or are coaches trying to manage coverage away from excessive praise or criticism?

Wayne Bennett. Credit:Getty Images

Wayne Bennett came up with an interesting one on Saturday night when he claimed reckless use of the knees was becoming a problem. "It's a pretty lethal part of your body, your knee, and used in the wrong manner it can have some impact," Bennett said. "You've got to put some liability on the guy coming in there to make sure he doesn't do that." One convention from which Bennett departed was to openly criticise Brown, over his bench choices. "They, a little bit, created it themselves because they picked four forwards on the interchange bench," he said. "You can't put all your eggs in one basket. You lose a couple of backs and all of a sudden you've got back rowers defending in the centres."