- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
It is fair to assume that administrators will do a little rules tweaking before next year’s NRL Nines and I’d like to offer a suggestion that could make the event an even bigger spectacle.
Perhaps you will shout me down but here goes – why don’t we do away with conversions altogether and just have tries as the only scoring mode?
Most of the dropkick conversion attempts over the Auckland weekend were terrible and pretty much a waste of precious time.
They should consider abolishing this aspect of ‘play’ and if teams are level at fulltime, then a golden try will decide the issue.
Another change I’d like to see is an increase in the size of team squads to 20. There was heavy pressure on teams that went deep into Sunday and there wasn’t much recovery time between games.
A few extra players would alleviate problems in this area.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the tournament in Auckland – as did 90,000 fans at Eden Park and many thousands more on television.
The action was fast, often furious and the skills on show in attack and defence showed rugby league in a very good light as we approach the new season.
We saw plenty of bright new faces trotted out by the 16 clubs as well as some current stars and even a couple of legends of yesteryear.
Importantly, there was a heavy accent on fun. The NRL players are heading for a gruelling season and to me, the Nines seemed the perfect way to dust off the cobwebs, form some on-and-off field bonds and entertain the crowds at the same time.
There were many terrific performers with the Warriors’ Shaun Johnson clearly the standout. This guy looks set for a fabulous year and New Zealand should win many games thanks to his wonderful attacking skills.
I also liked the look of Tuimoala Lolohea (another Warrior), Fa’amanu Brown (Sharks), Tyrone Roberts (Knights), Tyrone Peachey and George Jennings (Panthers), James Tamou, Kyle Feldt and Curtis Rona (Cowboys), Mitch Cornish (Raiders), Kodi Nikorima (Broncos) and Corey Norman and Semi Radradra (Eels).
The Cowboys were indeed surprise winners but they won on the back of super defence in the semi and final. There are exciting signs for new coach Paul Green and I wish the club well in 2014.
Sure, the Nines tossed up some major injuries to key players but that is part of the game and who can say they would not have occurred in 13-a-side trials if they were held here in Australia?
We now move onto another huge weekend, headlined by the World Club Challenge between the Sydney Roosters and Wigan Warriors as well as the annual Charity Shield featuring St George-Illawarra and South Sydney.
I’m selecting the Roosters and Rabbitohs to win these games by comfortable margins.
Reckon you can pick the winning team? Build your own dream team with Draftstars daily fantasy and compete on any match. For great odds on the NRL head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.