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May 18th, 2003 was a historic day in rugby league. On that day at Brookvale Oval, the Manly Sea Eagles won the first ever game under golden point rules, beating Parramatta 36-34.
Ben Walker piloted a penalty goal between the posts at the Pittwater Road end to usher in a new era for the game.
The date is also significant for the fact that it represents Manly’s only golden point victory, and that it came via a penalty goal – the rarest of golden point winning methods.
As of last Saturday, Manly played in the 80th golden point game, with a familiar conclusion for them – a loss. This time it was a loss to the Canterbury Bulldogs in one of the games of the season.
The Penrith Panthers have won more golden pointers than any other side, with 8 wins in 14 sudden death matches. St George Illawarra and Newcastle Knights have the worst percentage records, both with 2 wins out of 10 while the Melbourne Storm possess the best conversion rate, with 4 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss out of their 7 drawn games.
But for this league watcher, golden point has had its day. It’s time to consign it to the same closet as contested scrums, barber shop corner posts and kicking duels. It is completely unnecessary during the regular season.
A draw was a valid result for the first 90 odd years of the game’s history, and so it can be again. For finals or representative games that do need a winner on the day, let’s get back to the practice of extra time – ten minutes each way.
If the result is still level after that, then I grant you, there may be a need for the sudden death option, but only in finals games after both teams have had the chance to win it in those extra minutes.
Two things are fundamentally flawed in golden point. The first is the notion that a game played to a time limit becomes something else entirely. A team can win without the other side even touching the ball, with no chance for a defending side to even attempt a score.
The second is that the field goal becomes priority and so the option of spreading the ball and going for a try becomes obsolete. Since 2010, only one game that went to golden point has been decided by a try.
With this emphasis on the field goal comes the ignoring of the ten metres. Referees bosses can deny it all they want, but they are ultimately reluctant to whistle up a penalty in front of the posts and virtually hand a team a victory.
Last Saturday’s Eagles-Bulldogs epic saw the ten metres flagrantly ignored by both sides and either could have been penalised for trying too hard to smother the attempted field goal.
This all goes back to the desperation the impost of sudden death puts on both players and referees. It might well be thrilling but it is ultimately unfair.
Rugby league adopted the golden point idea from football, who introduced golden goal to their competitions in 1993. The very first golden goal was scored in Brisbane by the Australian Under-20 side in the World Youth Cup quarter final against Uruguay.
The method was tinkered with and eventually abandoned. League has a history of borrowing ideas from other codes who then themselves abandon it. The finals McIntyre System was copied from the AFL, who then ironically switched to the same top eight system the NRL had originally used and which have now switched back to.
Golden point is an idea rugby league can give up on too.
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