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With Johnathan Thurston winning the game off his boot and handing Cowboys their first premiership, the chatter swung over to golden point – and Mr. Bennett’s dislike of it.
The field goal festival doesn’t do it for me, as I’ve seen that it normally begins with a penalty to get the metres.
So why not improve it by making a few modifications.
We need to bring back normal extra time. There needs to be five minutes each way, where you play out the entire 10 mins of extra time, regardless of how many field goals are kicked.
In the regular season, you can finish the game based on whatever result happens – whether win, lose or draw. In the finals, then you continue the golden point festival to get a winner.
By playing a full 10 minutes of extra time, you give broadcasters a set buffer of time they need to allow in the event of a game going to extra time, and give them a guaranteed extra 10 minutes of content. It also gives the fans hope, that if their opponents are within 30 of the sticks, that they can kick for goal, and not finish the game.
It stops the referees deciding games by awarding or not awarding penalties that give them the ground position to kick for goal.
Now, I know in this version I still allow for the field goal festival during the final minutes. But this is purely to get a result, as it is a final. I have seen some codes in the local leagues use ‘highest ranking team’ to decide draws.
I think that’s stupid, as it rewards teams for finishing well in the season, but punishes teams that start season poor, and find late season form.
An idea that wouldn’t work, but crossed my mind, is for extra time to go to penalties. It would be funny to watch, but it’s really not what rugby league is about. Plus at least in football and field hockey, you use five strikers and a goalkeeper.
In league, it would only be your normal kicker, and likely from five randomly selected locations. It is not only a silly way to decide a league match, but not really feasible. But the thought did cross my mind when looking at how other codes do it.
So, what do you think Roarers? Is there any merit in playing a full 10 minutes of extra time? Or should teams just kick more field goals during the game to avoid level scores at the death?
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