League is tough but not dangerous to play
Roar Rookie By polyglot, 30 Jul 2010 polyglot is a Roar Rookie
- Tagged:
- David Gallop, football, Gary Ablett Jr, Rugby League, South Sydney
NRL handy home hints: Is your lawn growing unsightly? Don’t waste time watering, just buy the house next door!
Forget off field transgressions, forget salary cap rorts, forget racism or betting scandals. Forget all that. That’s not the big problem facing rugby league, and the NRL know it.
They just won’t say it.
The real enemy of rugby league happens to be the elephant in the room, and none dare to even whisper mention of its existence. Not Dave, and not even the rival codes.
You see, rugby league is the roughest and toughest of all codes, not such an attractive proposition in a softening social culture that tends toward easier options.
What loving mother wants her son growing up with a handmade head, after all.
Other codes refuse to acknowledge the unique toughness and character required to play rugby league through fear of diluting the “manly” aspect of their own codes, yet they are covertly taking advantage of the perceptions and concerns that surround the sport (particularly with over tens).
Every code has special skill requirements, and is admirable in its own right, but rugby league produces very special athletes with a variety of skills – some of which other codes don’t require, and one of which is enormous: “ticker”.
Still, parents are more concerned for the safety of their kids than ever before and schools are more concerned about liability – rugby league is a sitting duck.
There are fallacies that need to be addressed urgently or the NRL might as well just hand over the keys to the other guys.
And why not? The door has been open a while now.
Rugby league is not a violent sport. Tough, yes, character building, yes. But not dangerous.
And this message needs to be heard loud and clear in the public domain.
If not, I predict that by 2018 (the ancient Mayan calender got it wrong) will bring the dawning of a new age called the “cotton wool” age, and at the beginning of the new winter solstice, a new age for rugby league.
Its called “football”.
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- Explore:
- David Gallop, football, Gary Ablett Jr, Rugby League, South Sydney
July 30th 2010 @ 8:03am
Crosscoder said | July 30th 2010 @ 8:03am | Report comment
1) Just for clarifiation.Rugby league is hardly a code unique with offfield transgressions or betting scandals or racism as recent events would attest, both in this country and overseas. I think the word we are looking for is resilient.
2) if anyone has bothered to watch kids playing the game,the injury factor is no more so than the other codes,and that was in some sporting statistics. Anycase the argument is flawed ,because the game’s participation levels are the highest on record, yet the code has only 3 states where the NRL clubs are domiciled. In fact there is a growing schoolgirls rl competition.Players don’t have to live with the fear of a collapsed scrum,nor contacts coming from 360degrees.
3)The cotton wool age came with the industrial revolution and the automobile. Computer games haven’t helped.
4) Football and its huge participation has been part of the landscape for decades,neither it,nor a cyncial press has prevented a growing number of kids taking up rl ,because soem mums realise you can get serious injuries on a swing ,bushwalking,surfing or even a kick in the tender area in football.One of the fastest growing sports in the UK is rl.
BTW in 2018 expect at least 20 teams in the NRL,all with the players’ mums’ approval..
July 30th 2010 @ 10:03am
Fez's are cool said | July 30th 2010 @ 10:03am | Report comment
20 teams? Perth, Central Coast, SE Qld and Wellington?
July 30th 2010 @ 11:13am
bilbo said | July 30th 2010 @ 11:13am | Report comment
I was always bewildered as a kid (who played league, union, cricket and soccer) that league was the one with the bad rep.
Union must have the best PR around! The rucks and the stomping and all the rest look horrible, but all we hear about are the dangers of RL.
As for soccer – I remember from the junior participation statistics that there were more broken legs from soccer than broken bones in RL – and cricket, even with all the protective gear, is dangerous too. I used to bat at number 11 but I would still go home with round, cricket ball shaped bruises.
Not sure about AFL because it wasnt really an option where I grew up, but I would be surprised if there are substantially less injuries.
July 30th 2010 @ 12:07pm
M1tch said | July 30th 2010 @ 12:07pm | Report comment
Isnt it the bad behaviour of players from the late 70′s to early 80′s that still haunts the game at all levels.. Everyone seems to think of cheap shots, high tackles, and brawls every tackle. It just doesnt happen in the top grade.
July 30th 2010 @ 2:24pm
Harvey the Scouser said | July 30th 2010 @ 2:24pm | Report comment
I had a bit of trouble focusing on this article, with polyglot’s avatar an’ all
July 30th 2010 @ 3:45pm
oikee said | July 30th 2010 @ 3:45pm | Report comment
I think “Spike t/v” summed it up pretty well with their broadcast. “Wimps not required”.
Hopefully the next t/v deal makes enough money for the game to expand nation-wide. A strong rugby league community is a strong Australia.
July 30th 2010 @ 11:43pm
jimbo said | July 30th 2010 @ 11:43pm | Report comment
Is this a wind up polyglot?
Despite the myths, Football is not the most dangerous game, it is the most playable of all games and you can keep playing it until you are 50 if you want to.
The most common injuries are knee injuries and tennis elbow, not broken legs playing football.
Most league players are finished by the time they hit 30 and can hardly walk by the time they are 50.
July 31st 2010 @ 11:54am
Crosscoder said | July 31st 2010 @ 11:54am | Report comment
I don’t believe anyone said football(soccer) is the most dangerous game.Knee injuries and broken legs and there are more than a few,tend to assist arthritis long term.One has never done a fulll blooded research into the long term effect of heading balls.
When it comes to kis sports,however one is really no more dangerous(injury prone) than the other.
July 31st 2010 @ 4:56pm
Chris said | July 31st 2010 @ 4:56pm | Report comment
Well I’d like to bet that Rugby League and Rugby Union have a higher incidence of serious spinal injuries due to the nature of the tackling (driving into the ground) and scrums (RUnion). Aussie rules more prone to knee/ankle injury from shifting and being tackled through 360 degree… Don’t have any stats to back my opinion up just the feeling I get from seeing RL and Aussie rules injuries over the years. An AFL level there are occasionally very nasty broken legs but this is almost unheard of in amateur football.
I reckon for kids RL is a bit more dangerous – More high shots.
August 1st 2010 @ 11:36am
Crosscoder said | August 1st 2010 @ 11:36am | Report comment
We are firstly discussing junior rugby league mini and mod versions,that are no more no less dangerous than other sports in that junior age group.Yet a couple of competing codes conveniently use the flawed injury argument to flog their product.More high shots in junior rl,sorry the penalties have reduced them dramatically.So disagree.
.It can be argued that the older 12years and older groups have higher incidence of injury.Yet young girls are taking up the sport.
There is also the alternative flag non contact rugby league available.
i have been following rugby league for decades and the game is far cleaner at senior level than it ever was,and is far less dangerous than it ever was.
Spinal injuries have been reduced dramatically by the non pushing in the scrum,and there has been the odd spinal injury with the driving tackle,but that is well down on previous years.The penalty involved in the spear tackle in seniors is sufficient to avoid the situation,though it still happens but less so.
The trouble is people have the habit of judging an odd incident in the NRL and extrapolate it to happen often in junior rl,which is patently wrong.
yes rugby league is a sport played at senior level at high speed and high intensity,so there is the chance of a serious injury,just as there is in many high speed sports.But please don’t view the same applies at junior and mini level.
August 1st 2010 @ 9:43pm
Karlos said | August 1st 2010 @ 9:43pm | Report comment
An old bug bear of mine are the comments from supposed experts like Gould and even Rabbits saying things like “Rugby League is a violent game” and going on about how tough the game is whilst largely ignoring he great skills and stamina on display. Anyone watching a game can see the blokes are tough and whilst that toughness needs to be acknowledged, there needs to be more said about the tactics and skills and character building aspects of the game (taking decisions on the chin, working hard for your mates etc).
During the SOO every year, the advertising goes on and on showing brawls and punches being thrown as if that was the most important aspect of the game. No wonder some parents and teachers are turned off by our sport. Price getting knocked down last year was a great opportunity to remind all Australians that hitting a bloke when he is down is not acceptable and in RL there is none of that lowly dog act stuff you see in AFL where they attack injured players when they are leaving the field for dislocated shoulders etc. Price went down and when evryone knew he was gone, that was the end of it.
The word “violent” and derivatives of this word are poison in todays world. The domestic violence adds etc are a part of this and whilst some might say, “Ït is only semantics,” there are far better words to be using to describe RL than “violent.” Rugby League is a manly game that retains good values that society is losing. Why is more not made of the positive stuff like the handshaking and backslapping between opposing teams after games? We need to show kids this good stuff so they learn to play hard and respectfully. They wont learn it at school where feminism has all but wiped out masculinity. Bring back the traditional shaking of hands before games as well.