A week can be a long time in league.

This time last week I was chomping at the bit to get in to the season proper.

It was a long wait and boy was it worth it.

The first week of footy has really shown we are in for one HUGE season.

The talking point has obviously been the emergence of the season's newest controversy the "prowler" tackle.

With the "grapple" tackle now well and truly under the microscope by the on field officials and the judiciary any player that goes near his opposition's head will be hearing the tones of the referees whistle.

But the "prowler" is a new can of worms.

The first thing is it's not illegal.

But it's the execution of it that is getting a lot of people up in arms.

Basically you hold your opposition up while he wriggles and wrestles and then a third man comes in to cut him down.

On Friday night the execution of this tackle on Craig Wing had a fair bit of feeling behind it.

It appeared to be planned and coached.

The outcome obviously wasn't meant to be – without trying to confuse the issue, I am sure Riley Brown did not go out on Friday night wanting to put Wing out for three months.

But there seems to be no doubt the tackle was meant to inflict a nasty blow.

And here lies the biggest issue I see.

It is not going to be long before we see someone REALLY hurt by a "prowler" tackle.

It is most likely to happen when the wrestling opposition player drops to his knees and cops a shoulder either in the neck or the head.

The result, at the very least, will be concussion. The worst does not bear thinking about. But I wouldn't be surprised if we see the same type of injuries that plagued players who wore their boots in the era of spear tackles.

The unfortunate thing here is referees cannot rule against this type of tackle.

The player is always going to have the excuse of "I was coming in to complete the tackle, held had not been called and I was trying to stop him".

And it is a legitimate defence.

What we are dealing with, however, is fair play.

And this is where we're always going to get caught.

As a fan I want to see my team win – and, sure, I love to see players smashing each other in tackles.

But I do not want to see players getting hurt. Too many careers have been cut short by nasty injuries.

So it comes down to the coaches.

If they're the ones telling their players to get nasty then we have a big problem.

The coaches all got up on their high horses over the "grapple" tackle saying players would be hurt badly.

So it is now their turn to stand up and get rid of this. But how long will it take?

And on another topic as I said last week my tipping prowess is coming to the fore already.

In the first round of the Yahoo!Xtra tipping competition I picked up an unconvincing 3 wins from 7.

Let me know how you went.