TRENT Robinson’s crusade is not new.

Last year all the NRL coaches came together with all the sophisticated politics of a high school classroom. A lot of effort is put in to make it look like they are not putting in very much effort at all.

Robinson is his own man, though.

When the meeting was over NRL head of football Todd Greenberg opened the floor to anybody that had something to say and Robinson stood.

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media_camera Robinson’s request for support got a short shrift from his fellow coaches.

For the next 10 minutes he spoke passionately about the game and how, as coaches of their respective clubs, they were more responsible for the direction the game took than anybody else.

More than anyone, they were the game’s guardians.

Robinson spoke about players laying down to draw penalties. It had to stop, he said. But it couldn’t stop without their agreement and he asked them all to buy in.

The pause was only brief.

“F... that,” said Ivan Cleary, and the idea fell dead to the floor.

That was it. All over.

Right there is what the NRL is dealing with as it continues this trend of death by a thousand cuts.

We lurch from one minor catastrophe to the next, none big enough to affect the game on its own but combined they have the game haemorrhaging.

We lurch from one minor catastrophe to the next, none big enough to affect the game on its own but combined they have the game haemorrhaging.

Last week we debated the farcical round 13 rule, trying to find sense in a rule that has none while outsiders to our sport, unblinkered by self-interest so thinking clearly, marvelled at the stupidity of it.

This week we move on to something new but equally as insane. Robinson ignited it when he accused St George Illawarra’s Euan Aitken of laying down to draw a penalty

Let’s forget, for a moment, the debate some have raised whether Dylan Napa did or not connect with the shoulder and not the arm, as some believe.

What is important is that when charges came out on Monday Napa was not charged for the hit on Aitken.

Indeed, it seems to be a disturbing trend in the NRL. This year, there have been 87 penalties for high tackles.

ROBINSON: Stop lying down and get up

Of those, 21 have come after a player stayed down and gave the video referee time to look at a replay. And of that 87, 26 players were put on report.

Just four have resulted in judicial charges. Four.

This is a dangerously low number for the damage it is doing to the game. It shows that few of the penalties are legitimate, given they are supposed to be worthy of a charge before being replayed back to the referee on-field.

Most of all, it is disproportionate to the amount of coverage it is getting, a coverage born out of frustration and disillusionment.

The answer is not to charge more players.

The answer is to remove the video referee.

media_camera Brett Stewart was the latest to suffer an incorrect penalty.

The by-product of so much publicity surrounding the diving is that it will get worse unless the NRL moves now to stop it. Coaches are watching it and understanding it better.

When Daniel Anderson ran the referees his rule was that unless a tackle was believed worthy of a potential charge the video referee was to say nothing.

That has changed.

Now, referees have removed the discretion and even the softest of touches that brushes a ball-runner is deemed reportable so the referee must be told contact was made.

The video referees are seeing players lay down, know what is happening, but are helpless to do anything because this is how the rule is mandated.

Total accidents are being put on report, as happened to Brett Stewart on Saturday.

Stewart was defending when a player got tackled from behind and fell into him. It was a total accident, yet the player stayed down long enough for a glimpse in the box, contact was established, and Manly was penalised.

Why?

The Storm got carried upfield on the back of an undeserved penalty. Such penalties shift the momentum in games. The game is won by momentum.

Coaches know it and encourage their players to exploit it. The players exploit it because it gives them easy yardage and a fresh set. And the game knows it but sits idly by.

When will someone show leadership like Robinson?