The dinosaurs came out in force when the NRL announced in November last year that the time-honoured “shoulder charge” was to be outlawed from the game from 2013 and beyond. After 71 shoulder charges were recorded across NRL games last season (12 which lead to contact with the ball carrier's head), it was agreed by officials and medicos that something had to be done before someone suffered serious injury or died. The usual “skirts”, “touch football” and “pansies” jibes were locked, loaded and fired by critics, who were great in number.

When round one finally arrived four months later, the boo-ers were expecting a much softer, friendlier game played to the tastes of today’s, oh, I don’t know, more sensible and educated audience. They needn’t have worried, though. The big hits were still there, the bodies of their favourite combatants still sore after an hour or two of heavy contact.

When Manly’s Richie Fa’aoso hit the Gold Coast’s Ashley Harrison with a shoulder charge just before half-time at Skilled Park last weekend, the debate looked to be dead and buried. The NRL’s stance was justified. Indeed, how can anyone possibly argue for the shoulder charge to be allowed back after watching Harrison deal with the consequences of his head clash with Fa’aoso?

Of some concern, though, is the eventual punishment handed down to the Sea Eagles’ power forward. He’ll miss just one week. He was originally handed a grade-three dangerous contact charge, which was downgraded at a judiciary hearing on Wednesday. Harrison will also miss this week’s match against the Panthers after failing to sufficiently recover from his concussion in time.

Fa’aoso’s light suspension has us surprised that the NRL didn’t come down harder on him after a summer-long awareness campaign about just how dangerous this tackling tactic can be. Beside’s Richie’s hit, there have been several other instances over the opening rounds of the 2013 NRL season where, as a spectator, you’ve been left thinking to yourself: um, was that not a shoulder charge? Aren’t they illegal now?

In the past, the game’s governing bodies have handed down severe punishments for offences relating to other clamp-downs such as alcohol abuse, inappropriate behaviour towards women and racism. Their message is always the same: if you’re the first to stuff up, look out. This hasn’t really happened with the shoulder charge, though. Maybe more instances are on the way. It has been around for 100 years after all …