Players who duck or deliberately lower their knees in order to draw high contact and receive a free kick will not be rewarded in 2017.
Umpires boss Peter Schwab has clarified how the high contact and deliberate rushed behind rules will be adjudicated this season.
Players who draw high contact will no longer be rewarded and rushed behinds will also have a far stricter adjudication.
The move is a definitive shift in thinking from the league, who have previously told players to ensure they tackle correctly to avoid any high contact, deliberate or otherwise.
The rule change has now put the onus on the player being tackled, as well as the tackling player.
“What we’re trying to do there is if the players’ legitimate attempt to tackle appears to be correct and that the high contact is caused by the player ducking into the tackle, dropping his knees or trying to shrug it off, then it will be a play-on call,” he said on Friday morning.
“Again it’s asking for the umpire to make that decision so we’ll just see how we go on that."
The deliberate rushed behind rule has also caused much controversy in recent seasons and has been clarified.
Players who rush the ball from further than nine metres out will now automatically be penalised.
“The deliberate rushed behind has a lot of criteria for the umpires,” Schwab said.
“It sounds simple in principle but when you go through it there’s a lot of examples about how the ball’s taken over the scoring line. So we’ve had to work out some criteria to help us.
“We know there is perceived pressure with players but the umpire will look at it and say, ‘Well, I think the player had a lot of time to do something and elected to take it over’.”
