THE NRL has announced a crackdown on late tackles, to protect kickers who are vulnerable after they have kicked the ball.

The directive will give referees more power to sin bin players who are responsible for late hits on kickers.

Players can now be sin-binned for foul play as the NRL move to stamp out “dog shots” on ball players.

Round 20

Australian Rugby League Commissioner Peter Beattie and NRL boss Todd Greenberg announced the changes at the NRL’s Moore Park headquarters.

“No-one wants to see players taken out of the game through acts of foul play,” Beattie said.

The rule allows for players to be sin-binned for any foul play including high tackles, dangerous throws, shoulder charges and crusher tackles.

The move follows a number of incidents involving kickers from Johnathan Thurston to Nathan Cleary who have been taken out late after kicking the ball.

Thurston voiced his displeasure after a match with Manly, when Jack Gosiewski took him out late off the ball.

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“What is it going to take, me being rubbed out with broken ribs before they will really come down hard on it,” Thurston said at the time.

Charlie Gubb was the latest to be suspended for a late hit on Nathan Cleary in the Raiders loss to the Panthers on Friday.

With the new directive referees will have the power to sin bin players for late hits, which will have a greater impact on the games the incidents are involved in rather than the following rounds that they may miss through suspension.

Greenberg also urged referees not to go looking for penalties and to just referee what is in front of them.

For fans hopefully this will see an end to the high penalty counts that have plagued some contests this season.

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