'Leave it alone': Joey fumes over rugby-style crackdown

Andrew Johns has urged NRL bosses to leave the game alone amid another pending crackdown.

On Wednesday, Nine's Danny Weidler revealed coaches had been put on notice after round one with several incidents pinpointed around certain laws.

Those laws were disrupters, rucks, contact on kickers, contact after the pass, roll balls, baulking, not clearing the ruck, collisions, takeouts, escorts and player communication.

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Perhaps the best reaction to the post was from Bulldogs boss Phil Gould who responded with a gif of a shocked Kramer from Seinfeld.

Johns, who said last season was the "best year of footy I've seen", hopes the NRL doesn't take the contest out of the game.

"Just leave it alone ... every play the ball there's a contest, every play the ball you can pick up a six to go if you wanted to," he said on Wide World of Sports' Immortal Behaviour.

"Just let the game flow, let the game go, don't over-officiate it. People in rugby league, we mock rugby union for how over-officiated it is, well we're getting that way.

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"It's after round one, just leave it. Just let it go, last year was the best we've seen.

"On the weekend there was double the amount of six agains, you have to realise the six agains, what they do for the momentum to the game.

"Six agains back-to-back destroys the opposition's middle, it creates so much fatigue."

The league Immortal also pointed out the rules around the contact on kickers, describing it as his "bug bear".

Johns had originally been outspoken about protecting halfbacks after a number of off-the-ball hits but insists it's now reached a limit.

"The halfbacks are overly protected now, it's gone way too far," he said.

"Ten years ago, when they were getting smashed in the back, I was the one crying out 'this is BS, you've got to stop it', but now it's gone too far."

The former Knights, NSW and Australian halfback did defend the referees saying "they have such a tough job".

"Every play the ball is a contest and every play the ball the defenders are trying to cheat," he said.