Liam Martin, the enforcer for the Penrith Panthers, has stated he won’t back down in spite of the growing discussions surrounding high-impact hit-ups on the first tackle.

Lindsay Collins and Toluat’u Koula have missed the past two weeks of action because of concussions they received during the kickoff. Nelson Asofa-Solomona of the Storm gets eliminated from the Grand Final due to the Collins incident.

Will the Penrith Panthers reduce their ferocity at kickoff, then? Liam Martin revealed in an interview with SEN 1170 Breakfast that the team will not be changing their approach.

“If you sort of try to say that it could probably go too far in the opposite (direction),” Martin replied. All you want is for the boys to enter the room with confidence in their preparation and their performance in the

“Obviously, we try not to be careless during practice and competition; accidents may happen, but I believe Ivan Cleary will advise approaching the game the same way you would any other. Sunday won’t be any different, I believe.”

Martin continued by saying that the high-stakes collisions set the tone for the games and that it would be difficult to slow it down given the teams’ momentum into the tackle.

“We do thousands of them a year, you sort of know how to approach them, accidents do happen but that sort of happens in every tackle,” said he.

“I don’t think we can really change anything in how you approach.”