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I’ve been upset the past few weeks. I really thought Dave Smith and the ARL Commission’s goal of 20,000 average attendance within five years was achievable.
That was at the start of the season. That was before I realised that fixed scheduling is a disaster.
We need the best games at the best venues at the best possible time. Whatever gets that done is the best possible answer to slumping crowds and ratings.
But that also means having the best possible entertainment on display. The best theatre.
One of the core elements to the theatre that is rugby league has been collisions.
In the early 90s, we began the process of trading in the violence of collisions for more attacking football.
That meant a 10-metre corridor, a crackdown on high tackles and the possibility of men under 25 with untouched faces and more skills coming into our game.
It was a blessing. Enter kids like Benji Marshall, Johnathan Thurston, Shaun Johnson, Billy Slater and Greg Inglis, doing unseen things at an earlier age than ever before.
But now we’ve reached a new phase.
Dave Smith and the Commission have continued to reduce on-field violence through the banning of the shoulder charge and a crackdown on late shots on kickers, not to mention further penalising of anything resembling a high shot.
But here’s where we have diminished returns, because we’ve lost sight of the fundamental exchange which must happen when we reduce collisions and violence in our sport: every moment of brutality and collision removed from rugby league must be compensated for with more brilliance and skill on display in attack.
Yet this year we’re seeing less freakish moments, less brilliance. The game is still entertaining and a good spectacle, but it has lost an edge.
Why? Because we haven’t dealt with the moment just before and right after ‘held’.
I watched a game from the 80s the other day and wondered what looked different. Then it hit me: as soon as a man was clearly tackled, defenders would simply get up and prepare for the next play.
We hadn’t invented the wrestle yet. As a result, there was more broken play.
Can you imagine us today, with the skills our players have, with just as much broken play as players used to get in the past?
Of course reducing interchange is vital in this but that won’t complete the job.
What Dave Smith must do is institute a compete wrestle-free strategy. It starts simply: blow the hell out of the whistle.
Why the hell do referees allow players to continue to press down on the player lying on the ground, way after held has been called?
Why do we allow the coaches and players to dictate the speed of the play-the-ball?
It’s very simple: if players do not let go and stand up or roll away the moment the ref calls held, it’s a penalty.
There is nothing attractive about a tackler lying on top of the ball carrier, like a police officer restraining an armed man on the ground. This didn’t happen 20 years ago.
If you don’t believe me, go to YouTube, enter ‘rugby league 1980s’ and watch the tape.
Very simple. Tackler initiates collision. Player’s momentum is stopped, either standing or through falling to the ground. Held. No immediate release: penalty.
Removing collisions without improving attack will make our game boring. We must decide what we want: wrestling on the ground or broken play.
You can’t have both.
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