Canterbury Bulldogs director of football and NRL media pundit Phil Gould has revealed he wants to see a drastic change to the way sin bins are administered in the competition.

Under current rules, sin bins are used for professional fouls and other acts of foul play, including head high tackles, hip drops and crusher tackles.

Sin bins can often turn games, though, with teams regularly scoring plenty of points against 12 men.

It was put to Gould on Twitter (formerly known as X) that the sin bin system should change to something similar to the power play system used in the National Hockey League (American ice hockey).

In that competition, a penalised player is placed in a ‘penalty box' for a varying length of time depending on the nature of the offence, but would be let back into the game immediately upon the opposition scoring.

Gould agreed, saying he has been calling for a change like this for 20 years.

“I've been saying that about the sin bin rule for 20 years…” Gould wrote.

There has long been talk about shuffling the sin bin and send-off system.

The reintroduction of the five-minute sin bin has been widely called for, while others have suggested sin bins should be far more sparingly used, with the potential for players to simply be replaced rather than taken out of the game and reducing their team to 12 players.

Send-offs have also been argued, with some suggestions that teams shouldn't be reduced to 12 for the entirety of a game.

The potential for games to be ruined has been evident over the years, with maybe the most prominent example being the send-off of Joseph Suaalii during the 2024 State of Origin series after he took out Reece Walsh during the opening exchanges of that game.

The call for a sin bin change comes on the back of several other changes the NRL are set to introduce for 2026, with a team conceding a try set to be able to elect to kick-off or receive, the six-again rule receiving tweaks, and blue shirt trainers to be banned from the field of play, among others.

1 COMMENT

  1. Just because Mr Gould has been calling for it for 20 years does not mean it is a good idea.
    If teams with only 12 men “regularly concede points” then perhaps that is a good thing. It encourages players and coaches to understand the meaning of the word “consequences”.

    Leave it as it is, I say. If any change is made then make the referees hand out more since bins for head high tackles.