I’m in a unique position. I’m a huge Parramatta Eels fan and a former rugby league referee.
I didn’t blow up at the 40/20 disgrace but I was disappointed for the Eels and the game in general after another controversy that could have been avoided.
The debacle around what happened last Friday night can never be repeated. I don’t blame the refs, I don’t blame the ball boys. I don’t even blame the players, although they should know the rules of the sport they are paid handsomely to play.
I’ve been around the traps at many NRL venues over the years refereeing the undercard matches. I know how the game is managed off the field with balls boys, ground officials, Fox and Channel Nine cameramen and of course the interchange officials, water runners and trainers.
Like many rugby league fans, I could not believe that incident occurred and then for the NRL official to blame the ball boy was simply astonishing. The NRL need to look a little closer to home if you ask me.
While engaging in some banter last night on Facebook about this issue, I saw a post from a mate that was so simple I left me gobsmacked. Why hadn’t anyone thought of this before?
The 40/20 rule was changed to allow a quick tap restart instead of the scrum to speed the game up. I’m all for speeding the game up so in light of the Parramatta incident, I’m not liking the talk of scrapping the quick tap and reverting to the scrum. Don’t change the rule – change how it is managed.
Are you ready for the brilliant solution?
My friend Doug suggested that each NRL venue could simply have a ball holder that is placed at the 20m line on both sides of the field and at each end. That is, four holders in total. It would need to be set back about 5m from the sideline so it wouldn’t impact on the play, touch judges or cameramen. Each holder could just have two or three balls in it.
Once a 40/20 kick occurs like the Chris Sandow one last Friday night, a player simply runs to the holder, grabs a ball, passes it from the sideline in to the mark for a quick tap. Play on!
No reliance on balls boys to sprint down field at the same pace of professional athletes to provide the ball for a quick tap. No need to change the rule back to the scrum.
How beautifully simple.
40/20 remain a great tactical play, quick taps continue to speed up game and add entertainment and ball boys are not placed in predicaments like last Friday night.
On the odd chance there was more than three 40/20s, the ball boys could just top the holders up again. However, if you don’t want to give ball boys any responsibility, here is novel idea. The NRL ground official could do it or give the job to one of the other other dribbles who just hang around the tunnel at every venue looking important.
The NRL spends millions on advertising to attract grass root support but they attack a ball boy at the same time. This drives grass root support away from the game.
Maybe they could spend a few thousand and get these ball holders made and deployed to each NRL venue as soon as possible! I know a metal worker – he’d probably do it for a carton of beer!
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