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Let’s get it out there from the start – the golden point in the National Rugby League is far from golden.
It’s an exhibition of the worst aspects of our game. There are poor player decisions, negative attacking options, suffocating defensive play pushing the boundaries of the laws, and mind-numbing stupidity.
The concept of golden point was born out of a desire to take the flat feeling out of a tied result and turn that into an exciting finish where a winner would always be declared at the end of the contest.
The idea had its virtues. The fans would be happy with an edge-of-their-seat finale, the broadcasters would be happy with some minutes of additional content, and the winning team would be happy with an additional competition point. The only losers were the losers themselves.
More golden point:
» Roar and Against: Is Golden point the best we have?
» What’s the point of golden point?
» NRL to consider scrapping golden point for finals
Let’s go back to the beginning – and it’s had its flaws since then.
To start with, golden point time only lasts ten minutes (five minutes each way). Why are we playing a ‘sudden death’ period of play when if we have no point scored after ten minutes we have no result anyway? The last example of this was in Round 3, when the Raiders tied with the Knights.
Golden point without a point is pointless.
I was a spectator at the first game that went into golden point, when Manly defeated Parramatta with a penalty goal to Ben Walker in 2003.
The penalty was awarded against Matt Petersen, who cleaned up an Eels dropped ball and was ruled offside. However, he was not offside since he was behind the point where the ball was first touched by his teammate. It was a technical point that wasn’t noticed until the game was reviewed by the officials the following day.
So we had a game decided by an error of law, where the aggrieved team was given no right of reply on the park. Golden point, see? First point wins.
That is where things have gone a bit crazy. We have moved too far away from traditional rugby league. Many other factors have influenced how the game is played those (potential) final minutes.
While pure gold itself does not tarnish, less than 24 carat will. The metals with which it is alloyed corrode with oxygen. Right now we have too much alloy and not enough gold. The corrosion is obtuse.
Never fear – relief is at hand! The NRL Competition Committee will meet next month with a plan to clear the golden point from finals games, which will be a big step forward to its elimination from regular games as well.
There are a few options on the table, like the NFL’s ‘make sure both teams each get a turn with the ball’ model, to a golden try alternative.
The most likely recommendation is regular extra time. Both teams will know they have a full ten minutes of game time to score the winning points, despite what the other team will do in the interim. A field goal from 40 metres out won’t mean the end of the contest.
From what I have seen since its inception, this has to be the way forward. Every game you see that enters the 81st minute has a toddler-with-a-crayon sense of ill-conceived pot-shots at field goal.
Play is routinely up the middle through the forwards, with a half positioned behind the ruck to take the shot. There is no thought of involving the backline. If the shot is missed, we head back up the park with the same play from the opposing team.
It is boring. Team are rarely in position to take a reliable shot at goal but they do it anyway. I’ve spoken to plenty of NRL players about it, and they are all of the same belief. “If you get a chance to win the game, you take it,” is the overwhelming response.
With five minutes each way to decide a finals game, the contest will be finally handed back to its genesis of skill and tactical nous. The long-range drop goal attempts will still be there, but an opposing team may choose to concede that point to use their backline on the next play and still win the game. Both teams will be afforded flexibility to utilise backlines and set plays.
The pressure is off the players to defend one particular scoring play and it is also off the officials.
Once criticism I hear about golden point is players offside on the 10 metres, markers not being square, and the match officials doing nothing about it so it’s their fault. To an extent that is true.
Players will be pushing on the 10-metre line. They will be trying to jump from marker. The referee will penalise someone who has infringed as long as it is peculiar to that time of the game.
If a player in defence holds down the tackled player a moment longer, the fans will see a penalty.
What the officials see is that tackle in context with the previous 80 minutes – if there is another tackle previously of the same standard, this one won’t be penalised.
There is additional heat on the officials – no doubt about it. My second ever NRL game was Round 6, 2008 between the Cronulla Sharks and the Penrith Panthers.
That game was tied at the end of regular time, and I can’t remember who levelled the scores – but I remember wishing it wasn’t happening.
I was two games into a first-grade career as an NRL touch judge, and I didn’t want it to end that night. But if you stuff up a decision that leads to a golden point loss for a team – where to from there?
I know plenty of officials with one or two game NRL games against their name. Not this little duckling.
Sean Hampstead was the referee and Steve Carrall was the other touchie, both veterans of the game (which is why they were appointed to a game with me on the other line). I decided at the whistle to start golden point that I wouldn’t be doing anything that I wasn’t 100 per cent sure of – and even then, only if I was asked.
We had a couple of sets either side with long kicks to put the opposition deep in their own half, before Penrith put in a clearing kick on halfway that hit a Sharks player. It was on the western side of the ground – about 50 metres from where I was – when I heard through my earpiece: “played at”.
It was Sean Hampstead’s voice. The Panthers had regathered the pill. “He’s giving the Panthers six more tackles,” I thought, “this might mean the game right here.”
Until a second later I heard the same voice: “Is it?”
Alarm bells went off in my head – he isn’t sure? What the… he wants me to confirm it’s six again in a golden point game?
I’m too far away – I didn’t see which way the player’s arms moved, I couldn’t tell for sure the distance between the kicker and the defender, I’m not equipped to give advice.
It seemed to take 20 seconds for all those doubts to go through my head, but it must have been more like one second. Because before I could panic, I heard Steve Carroll’s voice in my ear, simply confirming: “Yes.”
So Penrith had the ball and in no time Jarrod Sammut had slotted a field goal to win the game.
All over and after 80 minutes the scores were tied, but after golden point it became Panthers 2 points, Sharks 0 points.
So Cronulla-Sutherland that night came away with the same competition points as Newcastle did last weekend, having conceded 53 over 80 minutes and scoring none. I can’t see any equity in that.
Let’s leave it to the Competition Committee. Even if we have to endure golden point in regular season games, at least we won’t have to suffer it in finals.
At last some oxygen has been given to one aspect of the game that can help strengthen it rather than have it corrode.
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