2014 was a cracking year in rugby league, and wasn’t it a fairytale finish?
If it couldn’t be my Manly Sea Eagles lifting the premiership trophy then the Rabbitohs ending their 43-year premiership drought was the next best thing.
Sam Burgess also gave us a grand final moment that will be talked about for decades.
Despite it being such a top year I still believe their is room for improvement for next year. Here are the six things I want to see in 2015.
1. Live football on a Sunday afternoon
And I’m not talking about the 2pm Fox game. My biggest issue when it comes to the NRL is the fact that Channel Nine are allowed to show the Sunday game on one-hour delay.
We live in a world where we can watch almost anything live, yet if my football team is playing interstate at 3pm on a Sunday then I have to wait an hour to see them.
I understand that Channel Nine want the football to run into the news for ratings purposes but surely there is a compromise? One possibility is playing the game at 4pm so it can be broadcast live. While some families wouldn’t like that, a 6pm finish is not the end of the world.
It is almost impossible to not have the score ruined – you can’t go to a pub because someone will tell you the score, you can’t go on any social media as score updates will be revealed, and don’t check your phone as a friend may have messaged you letting you know he heard your team was getting flogged on the radio. People also like to communicate with other fans via social media while watching games, this isn’t possible for delayed kickoffs.
I complain about this every year and I will continue to until the matter is resolved. While they are at it let’s put the delayed Friday night game on Gem too. I promise for ratings purposes I will still watch both games.
2. Get the video refs into a bunker
I feel sorry for the video refs, they’re on a hiding to nothing. With the way the rules are many indiscretions are open to interpretation and for this reason 50/50 calls see the losing teams’ coach and fans blow up.
The main problem with the video refs is the inconsistency, most fans can honestly say they don’t have much of an idea what a video ref is going to call once they have viewed a possible try more than five times. The new method of making the refs give an on-field decision isn’t working either as all that does is force them to guess when they have no idea.
We must try out the bunker. Hey, it may not work but at this stage we are desperate. Get a few video refs together, lock them in a room for the weekend and let them make the decisions for all eight games.
It seems to work for the NFL, with any luck it will work for us too.
3. Keep the footy at suburban grounds
There is nothing worse than an empty ANZ or Allianz. Give me the same crowd at Leichardt or Brookvale any day.
While the big stadiums are more comfortable and make for a better viewing experience, that’s not what it’s all about. Standing on the hill cheering your team on while you’re packed in like sardines are the foundations on which rugby league were built.
I hate when they suggest that games could be taken away from the suburban grounds in the future, as nothing beats a Sunday afternoon on the hill. If it was up to me there would be more games at suburban venues.
As I have suggested before, I would like to see at least one game a year brought back to North Sydney Oval, how good would that be!
4. More Vossy
I was devastated when Andrew Voss was given the boot by Channel Nine, I have always loved his calls. Slowly but surely he has found his way back on to the airwaves through limited work at Sky Sports New Zealand and on Fox Sports in Australia.
From what I have read online most fans agree with me – it is hard to find a bad word spoken about Vossy.
I’m tipping 2015 to be the year of his full reemergence, where we will be able to hear him calling games week-in week-out.
5. Scrap or reconfigure placing players on report
Seriously what is the point of it? I recall a referee placing pretty much all 26 players on the field on report after a blue which is just ludicrous. Players get placed on report all the time and don’t get charged by the match review committee while other players receive suspensions after the tape has been reviewed and the referee has missed the incident.
What this tells me is that the match review committee go over all matches with a fine tooth comb anyway looking for any indiscretions so the refs lifting their arms over their heads to make an x isn’t really required.
Yes I do realise that being placed on report gives the opposition a free interchange but surely there is a way to tweak it so that still can happen. For example a free interchange for a player that is fouled by any high tackle, lifting tackle and so on. Or even an extra interchange for injuries where the player cannot return.
Maybe it is best to just leave it the way it is but it’s obvious that being placed on report means little to the players, so what’s the point of keeping it?
6. Manly to make it to eleven consecutive NRL finals series
I’m positive not everyone will agree with me on this one.
October is not even over yet and I already miss the footy. Hopefully we have a cracker of a Four Nations series and then the off-season flies by.
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