- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Has the NRL gone boring this year? Seven rounds into the season it has become a talking point. In the first 56 matches this season, 17 have featured a winning score of 18 or less.
This is roughly 30 percent. Five teams have failed to score a point.
Penrith has just copped consecutive 30-0 defeats at the hands of Manly and Wests Tigers. Looks like Panthers coach Ivan Cleary has a lot of work to do.
Speaking of coaches, as we all know, their careers are on the line in every game. With that in mind, coaches are only after results. But with that mantra, has the entertainment of the game suffered?
This year there are seven new coaches: Cleary, Wayne Bennett, Steve Price, Michael McGuire, Des Hasler, Brian McClennan, and Geoff Toovey. It will take some time for them to implement their plans.
On the weekend we’ve seen kickers such as Jamie Soward and Kris Keating kicking the ball dead, conceding the opposition a 20-metre tap, rather than dealing with open-running fullbacks or wingers such as Billy Slater or Akiula Uate.
Being a Dragons fan, watching Soward consistently kick the ball dead was not only frustrating but boring. I also didn’t like the idea of giving the opposition a 20-metre headstart either; I prefer them doing the hard yards from their own try line.
There are several other negative tactics that NRL coaches employ to get the upper hand.
Wrestling around the ruck, which has been mastered by Melbourne Storm coach Craig Bellamy in the last six or seven years, is a deliberate ploy to slow down the play-the-ball, allowing the defensive line to set.
The majority of other teams have copied the Storm’s tactics, which overall has made the game slower and more defensive.
The game now has two referees – you would think one of them would police the ruck, cleaning it up.
Rather than hearing about wonderful tries, we now hear about grapple tackles, the prowler, the chinstrap, chicken wing, drumstick, and the grilled fish. It is getting out of hand.
Another conservative or negative tactic is when teams go for two points 20 metres out, when they know they have the opposition stretched. The Dragons regularly employed this, especially under Wayne Bennett’s three-year reign.
Coaches such as Parramatta’s Stephen Kearney have brought in a more structured, boring game plan, which may not suit his attacking players like Jarryd Hayne, Ben Roberts and Chris Sandow.
Sandow, who took $550,000 a year to defect from the Rabbitohs, is quickly becoming the biggest flop of the season. The result: Parramatta is coming last.
But also in general play, teams now do one-out hit-ups from their forwards, and rarely offload the ball to create second phase play, allowing attacking weapons to be used. Ironically Parramatta used second-phase successfully on their way to the grand final in 2009.
Many halves don’t take the line on, while centres don’t give enough quality ball to their outside wingers. While hookers still give out silly forward passes. OK, maybe I’m sounding like a nark, but I want what’s best for the game, and that is full of entertainment. Without entertainment, you lose crowds and ratings.
The worst game I’ve seen this year was Newcastle versus Parramatta in round six. I turned it off with 20 to go. The best I’ve seen this year was round one between the Warriors and the Sea Eagles. There were brilliant tries, including those from Daly Cherry Evans and Shaun Johnson. It was fun to watch.
You want to see teams play positively, like running on the last tackle, especially if they have good field position. You want halves like Soward to kick the ball in the in-goal area and try to tackle the fullback to force a goal-line drop out. You want more teams to ignore the two points and go for a try.
I want to see set-piece moves from scrums or penalties. Teams should try the short kick-off, just to catch their opposition off guard. Short kick offs are currently only used when a team is playing catch up in the dying minutes.
But to do all of that, you want coaches to instil positive tactics to their players.
The Telegraph’s Phil Rothfield the other day stated that the NRL should not expand due to the lack of quality in this year’s matches. He said we don’t have the players for 16 teams, let alone 18.
I think that’s nonsense. We have the players for the 16 clubs, but we also have NRL players in the English Super League, while a few have gone to rugby union, and, dare I say it, a couple have gone to AFL.
Perhaps one sticking point is the quality of the halves. But again, if the ruck area is cleaned up, it does allow the little man back in the game.
If anything, does the NRL have the quality of coaches going around, especially positive coaches? Also, are our referees up to scratch?
This is probably a phase the NRL is going through. It’s still a great game to watch, but we all know it can get better. And we’ve seen better. Rugby league has been successfully fighting against boredom since 1908, and will continue to do so.
With the NRL taking a break this weekend, I hope it gives players and coaches a chance to regroup and perhaps think differently. I’m sure Penrith are eager to score some points.
Hopefully everyone is thinking about a positive brand of football, and getting the game back to where it was, which is what made us all fans to begin with.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.