- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
There is only thing all rugby league fans agree on, and that is the massive crisis which is killing the game. We just need to clarify is ‘which’ particular crisis is the most dire and how we can solve it.
Ask any league fan about the state of the game and conversation will soon turn to the terrible crisis that has stopped them supporting the game (or they plan to stop later, yeah probably later).
Interestingly, there are a number of different disasters that fans are distressed about, but all of them can be solved if we deal with it peacefully, radically, or ridiculously.
The Sydney crisis
The game is dying with the huge number of Sydney teams in the competition, and we desperately need to get rid of some so we can have a truly national competition, like the AFL.
Peaceful solution – Accept that most rugby league fans are from Sydney, most league clubs were established in Sydney, and that most actual human beings in Australia live in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, so obviously with AFL dominating Melbourne, most teams are from Sydney.
Get more teams in Brisbane by all means but realise there are more people living between Homebush and Penrith than there are in Perth or Adelaide.
Radical solution – Establish teams in other locations, use the money and best young players from the current clubs to make them an on-field success and wait for some Sydney clubs to die through the process of attrition (otherwise known as the GWS model).
Or even better, get established Sydney teams and move them to other locations that have no league fans in them!
I mean sure, the Wests Tigers have got heaps of fans in Sydney but imagine how many they would have if they were moved 4,000km away to a city full of AFL fans!
Ridiculous solution – Continue to sook about it without taking any action. Write sensationalist hyperbole on the back of the Tele on slow news days.
(Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images)
The home final crisis
The Sea Eagles and Sharks played great all season and get punished by having to play away from home when they earn a home final. There needs to be an investigation!
Peaceful solution – Accept that with the NSW government about to spend over a billion dollars on three big rectangular stadiums, there is no chance any NRL final in Sydney will be held anywhere else.
Start preparing your fans and members immediately to playing big games at big grounds. The Tigers, Rabbitohs, Bulldogs and Dragons have all bit the bullet and left their spiritual homes for greener pastures.
This may not be your preferred solution, but it is how it is.
Radical solution – Beg, borrow, coerce, money to upgrade your home stadium. Finals aren’t played at Brooky, Penrith or Shark Park because they are too small and too unpleasant for a major sporting event. If you want to host a final the only way possible is to increase the capacity and upgrade the entire place.
Ridiculous solution – Do nothing until next year when a final is moved from Brooky again and refuse to attend in protest.
The wrestling crisis
The play the balls are so slow, they lie around all the time in the tackles and take forever to get up, the game is not as good as it used to be.
Peaceful solution – Accept that wrestling is a part of the play the ball now. Train players to lie passively in the tackles while the tacklers exhaust themselves, saving their energy for later in the game the wrestlers are getting tired.
(AAP Image/Action Photographics, Renee McKay)
Radical solution – Get better at wrestling than your opponents. Or, take the nuclear option – when attacking, send in a second dummy half and as soon as the referee calls held, get them to jump into the tackle and tear off any player who is slow.
If the referee objects, point out that held was called! If you get warned, keep doing it, if you get sin binned have someone else do it. Effectively, call the bluff of the whistle-blowers that action is needed!
Ridiculous solution – Teach the dummy half to stand behind every tackle with their hands in the air looking incredulously at the referee.
The refereeing crisis
The bunker keep getting it wrong, they keep making the wrong decision, there are too many penalties, not enough penalties, too much explaining to the captains, not enough sin bin (select any three from that list).
Peaceful solution – Accept that the referees and officials are well prepared, well intentioned honest people trying their absolute best to make the right decisions at all times.
They are not trying to advantage or hobble any team, rather stay out of the game as much as possible and let the players decide the outcome.
When they make mistakes, it is just that, a mistake. They will even out. Blaming referees for mistakes is like blaming the sky for rain. Yes, one leads to the other, but there is nothing accomplished by complaining about it.
Radical solution – Since the referees aren’t enforcing the rules to your satisfaction, change the rules instead! Obstruction a grey area in tries? Allow obstruction on try-scoring plays – problem solved!
Penalties are too harsh leading to points? Make them softer such as restarting the tackle count on the run.
Sin bin or send off changes the entire game? Allow a sin binned player to return immediately after the opposition scores.
Players sent from the field cannot return, but can be replaced after ten minutes. The nub of the issue fans have with rugby league referees is that their decision or lack of decisions have an enormous amount of power to change the game.
Reduce that power so losing coaches cannot point at a dubious penalty that changes the game, instead it will be death by 1000 cuts!
Ridiculous solution – Send every decision to another referee watching on TV who has a poorer view of the issue. Complain bitterly anyway.
Happy now? Good! Now bring on the Preliminary finals!
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.