NRL players are being challenged to process the avalanche of rule changes coming out of Rugby League Central in recent years.

There have been too many new “rule interpretations” – or “policy tweaks”, as the NRL prefers to describe rule changes – for players to comprehend in the high-pressure environment of a game. It is doubly hard for those whose brain circuitry operates without a kill switch. There are times when confrontations cause some players to bypass the brain completely, the impulses travelling directly from eyes to cocked fist.

One of the contentious refereeing incidents in the round seven match between the Roosters and Storm demonstrates the complications of multiple rule changes, demands for NRL black and white interpretations and the muscle/mind memory of experienced players.

Melbourne’s Nelson Asofa-Solomona placed his hand on the back of Eli Katoa as his teammate was surging for a try, but immediately withdrew from the action. The Kiwi international suddenly realised this was a breach of a rule which the NRL had insisted in the off-season it was intent on enforcing. It takes a few hundred milliseconds for a message to travel from neuron to fingertip, perhaps a little longer for a two-metre human.

But big Nelson, playing his first NRL match in 2024, immediately withdrew his hand and himself. A strict black and white interpretation of the so-called “driver” rule would have seen him penalised but........

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