How should the NRL punish McLean?

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SHOULD the severity of Alex McKinnon's injury influence Jordan McLean's punishment?

This is the extremely difficult decision facing the NRL ahead of next Wednesday's judiciary hearing that will determine responsibility for a tackle that led to a "terrible, terrible accident".

That is how leading Sydney neurosurgeon Dr Richard Parkinson described the tackle that left a promising young footballer in a medically induced coma following an operation to repair two fractures to his neck.

In Thursday's Daily Telegraph, Dr Parkinson said he could not blame Melbourne defenders McLean, Jesse Bromwich and Kenny Bromwich, for the incident.

"It appears that rather than the tackle, it's the weight of two players coming down on Alex which has caused the injury," Dr Parkinson said.

So how come only McLean has a case to answer?

Newcastle's Alex McKinnon suffered a broken neck as a result of this tackle. Source: FoxSports

After initially being stood down indefinitely before his judiciary hearing, McLean was yesterday granted leave to take his place in the Melbourne team to take on the Bulldogs in Perth on Saturday.

But his future beyond this remains unclear.

The NRL were only trying to do the right thing by everyone concerned when they stood McLean down this week, but it was a mistake to do so before the hearing.

And before we even start to debate what McLean's final penalty should be, let's go back to before this season kicked off, when the judiciary secretary Mark O'Neill visited Newcastle to talk to their players about the match review process, and judiciary system.

You'll remember there was a lot of debate towards the end of last year surrounding Kade Snowden's seven-match suspension.

Knights players were rightly questioning how the NRL could possibly rub out one player for seven weeks for a shoulder charge _ and yet let other players walk free for similar, sometimes seemingly worse, offences.

Alex McKinnon receives treatment on the field. Source: Getty Images

But as O'Neill explained to the Knights, the judiciary's code of conduct actually stipulates that the severity of an injury is taken into account when establishing the grading of a charge.

So they are affectively saying, we will punish the outcome, not the act.

The fact North Queensland's Ray Thompson suffered a broken jaw in that tackle was significant in Snowden's sentence.

Which brings us back to McLean, and the awful predicament this young Melbourne prop finds himself in as he waits to front the judiciary in the wake of a tackle that has almost certainly ended McKinnon's career.

Again, should McLean's punishment be influenced by the severity of McKinnon's injury, as was the case with Snowden last year?

This is how the NRL has previously stated their process works.

Almost everyone who saw the tackle agrees that it was a terrible accident with no degree of malice.

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And while no one in rugby league wants to see the blame of McKinnon's injury pinned on McLean, the judiciary panel might have no alternative.

Not if they are going to stand by their own standards.

Unless the NRL admits that the match review system and judiciary process is inconsistent, and in urgent need of an overhaul, the panel presiding over this case will have no option but to come down hard on McLean.

People are asking why McLean's case was put on hold this week, and questioning if this declares McLean guilty before his trial?

In fairness to the NRL, it was done out of respect to McKinnon and his family, and everyone who was involved in, or affected, by what occurred in Monday night's game.

The NRL is obviously keen to make sure this case is as open and transparent as possible given the scrutiny it is sure to receive _ and they will want to hear from all sides before a final punishment is determined.

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But what is a fair and reasonable outcome will divide many because no matter how hard we all look for answers it is impossible to make sense of what has happened.

And the more and more you look back over that tackle, the more you struggle to blame McLean.

As Melbourne captain Cameron Smith argued on the field at the time, the way McKinnon fell, ducking his head into his chest prior to hitting the ground, probably made the impact worse.

McKinnon could not possibly be blamed for his actions.

As for McLean, he would have went in to slow the play-the-ball down for sure and certain _ but not to cause serious injury to his opponent.

As Dr Parkinson said, it was a "terrible, terrible accident".

And McLean should not be judged on the injury that resulted, but his actions on the field.