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With the Superbowl and the NRL pre-season both rapidly approaching it’s time to examine exactly what our lovable little sport can learn from the United States juggernaut.
While the NRL can’t exactly hope to have eighty thousand people packing out the stadium each week, there are certainly aspects of the NFL which could be adapted into NRL gameplay.
In this article I’ll discuss just some of the slight modifications the could be easily added to the NRL to improve gameplay, the fan experience, and even player well-being. It should be understood that what I’d really like to add is Beyonce performing at half-time but it doesn’t seem practical so it’s been ignored.
This isn’t going to be a piece where I am suggesting we radically change the NRL. I’m not looking to create another gridiron code. Both games are fantastic for their own reasons. That’s not to say the NRL is beyond adapting.
My goal here is, to steal a line from the American Constitution, to help form a ‘more perfect union’. Sorry, I mean ‘a more perfect league.’
In the interest of full disclosure, I’m a fairly recent convert to the NFL but have been a life-long fan of NRL. Or at least, I’ve been a life-long fan of the Penrith Panthers who can often be charitably described as ‘technically playing NRL’.
Kickoffs
Let’s begin at the beginning. Or, more accurately, begin at the restarts. I’m yet to be presented with a good reason why, after points are scored, the scoring team should receive the ball again.
It seems counter-intuitive that having scored you should be given the opportunity to continue scoring ad-infinitum. One can imagine how one-sided basketball games could become if this was the case.
The kickoff rule as it stands reduces the variation in gameplay. Sure, it privileges ball-security but ball-security was already highly privileged. Having the ball is pretty important in most sports.
In defence of this rule, it can lead to wonderfully tight finishes where teams are able to make break after break to pull back a game that was once thought lost. This seems to conveniently omit the fact that a good number of the leads are generated because the opposition had earlier gotten on a roll scoring try after try.
The question is whether you value an amazing come-from-behind victory over a tight match over eighty minutes, where one team slips away at the last second. When it comes to this I’d argue that the reason those come-from-behind victories are so amazing is because they rarely happen.
Usually in the NRL when a team is getting blown out they stay blown out. Unless it’s my beloved Panthers who like to get just close enough to dare their fanbase to dream before crashing like a German blimp.
Unsportsmanlike Conduct
NRL fans have a bizarre infatuation with the moments when players stop playing the damn game we tuned in to watch them play, and punch each other.
The fans who claim ‘the biff’ is part of the game are watching the wrong sport.
If you want a slug-fest that only ends when one competitor is partially brain-damaged then boxing is your more your speed.
If you want a sport where the referee becomes purely ornamental as soon as grown men decide to throw fists around may I suggest either professional wrestling or ice hockey.
Football should be about football and any suggestion otherwise is just an attempt by Matthew Johns to sell T-shirts and DVDs.
Fights are going to happen. NRL players are incredibly competitive and the sport is very physical, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be disciplined when their behaviour needs moderating.
There’s supposed to be a check-and-balance for this: the sin bin. Unfortunately our current breed of referees would be timid about giving a war criminal ten in the bin. It’s too heavy a punishment.
Instead, referees will march the captain out, say something about how their players shouldn’t try and break the other team’s jaw, then send them back to the line.
The solution seems to be territory penalties. Losing ten metres for a sportsmanship infraction isn’t so harsh that it can completely decide a game every single time but it’s also not toothless.
Any form of unsportsmanlike conduct should result in a team being marched ten metres down the field (or, within the twenty metre line, half the distance to the goal). This is a tangible punishment and one which will force captains to be self-policing so their team isn’t giving up an extra ten on every play.
That’s not to say it should be used without discretion. The NFL seems to be moving to completely remove post-score celebrations. These are excellent and should still be around. Like most rules in our society the discretion required could probably be reduced to the age old maxim: “hey, don’t be an asshole.”
Mic The Referees
This one seems like a no-brainer and it’s bizarre that it hasn’t been implemented yet. Giving the referee a microphone both allows people in the nosebleeds that miss the fun knock-on hand gesture understand what the hell is going on and allows the person interpreting the rules to explain their interpretation.
In saying that, it is fun to listen to Gus Gould talk about the motion of Venus in an attempt to explain exactly why an obstruction was called. Also, it’s a fantastic chance to boo, and what crowd would give that up?
Penalty Flags
If there’s one thing that epitomises the NRL, it’s a wonderful break away try after a solid series of passes in a team’s own half to find and exploit a gap.
If there’s a second thing that epitomises the NRL, it’s the endless replays of the simple and obvious infraction that occurred at the very start of that same play which was then allowed to run to the point that it couldn’t be called back. (There has even been some suggestion of teams taking tackles on questionable plays so they can avoid these kinds of reviews altogether).
Introduction of a penalty flag system allows a referee to indicate their intention to check an aspect of a play without necessarily stopping the play. This removes the pressure from a referee to immediately blow a play dead or to let it run to the point that it’s no longer practical to call back.
Will this slow the game down if a player on a fast break is tackled on the ten yard line looking for a quick play of the ball? Certainly, but I promise you this will only be frustrating when it happens to your player and not the other team.
When it’s the other team you’ll be begging for the flag. You’ll love the flag.
Beyond this, the flag system creates a means of communication between multiple referees allowing the presiding referee to hear a call and subsequently decide to accept or overrule it.
This can also be beneficial to the team who the penalty is called against. They might prefer their eighty-metre run to stand rather than be called back for a kick at their ten metre line.
Concussions
Here’s where the NRL needs to learn from the mistakes of the NFL. Football has been described as a game where you pay to watch young men get brain damage. This has gone on for far too long.
This story is already blowing up in the United States and the league’s response has been horrifically unsatisfactory.
This past week, a judge refused to accept a settlement between the league and players which totals over $750 million dollars as it wasn’t large enough.
Firstly, this is after the NFL pressured ESPN into not pursuing the story. [1]
Secondly, it still got out. [2]
To expect that the same isn’t coming for Australian sports is ridiculous. Peter Fitzsimons has been quite noteworthy in his campaign to raise the awareness of the issue. It’s something that can or should be ignored.
We can no longer pretend to care about the well-being of our players only to abandon them the moment their careers end. It’s not good enough to say head injuries are part of the game. These are young men whose lives will be affected irreparably by attempting to entertain us.
Seeing a player returned to the field after suffering a massive blow to the head was once seen as a sign of courage.
I’m not claiming that these players aren’t courageous. I’m claiming the league has a duty of care to ensure that this courage doesn’t override safety.
The NRL has been so far open to implementing changes to concussion policy to assist the well-being of players.
It is of paramount importance that this continues to be updated with investments being made in researching both current and former player’s health and well-being to ensure the players we love can continue playing the game they love, and still enjoy a life after football.
[1] http://deadspin.com/judge-says-nfls-765-million-concussion-settlement-not-1501224888
[2] http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/24/sports/football/nfl-pressure-said-to-prompt-espn-to-quit-film-project.html?_r=0
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