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The Roar

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The NRL season is far too long

Cameron Smith (AAP Image/Craig Golding)
Expert
15th August, 2018
90

It’s been a long and gruelling season, this 2018 edition of the National Rugby League. And this time we’re actually talking about happenings on the field, not the amateur dramatics in the backrooms that occupy so much of our time.

You might not have seen it this week, but buried among another seven days of the coaching rotisserie, fake crises, fat jokes and tit-for-tat slanging matches between grown adults, something interesting was announced.

The NRL released their 2019 season calendar featuring the State of Origin series, the return of the Indigenous All Star game, a proposed (read: probable) end-of-year international nines tournament, and a trans-Tasman Test between Australia and New Zealand.

Further years will be even busier, with more international games to come.

Combine that with the ‘traditional’ NRL season and it’s a lot of rugby league, sure to attract fans and bring in the revenue, sponsors and ratings that head office do enjoy.

But it’s also asking far too much of the players.

I’ve never understood why the NRL runs a 26-round regular season. In one of the most physically demanding sports going around, by the time we hit the end of the year a lot of teams are busted, mentally and physically.

I get the commercial imperative, but the quality of the product takes a steep dive as we hit these later rounds, with injury and fatigue biting the lower clubs, while those with a premiership sniff go into preservation mode until the postseason.

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Sure, there are byes, but they don’t make much of a difference, randomly scattered around the Origin period.

Between March 2017 and February this year, Cameron Smith played 23 NRL matches, three Origins, seven internationals and a World Club Challenge game before the 2018 season kicked off on March 8.

That’s 35 games in just under one calendar year (and he missed four regular season games). If the World Cup wasn’t on, Smith still would have played 29 times.

Cameron Smith of the Storm is sin binned

Cameron Smith (AAP Image/Craig Golding)

Injury tolls over the last few years prove that players’ bodies aren’t coping with the long season – while they’ve never been fitter, they’ve also never been faster or bigger. Repeated high-velocity impact is having much more of an impact on bodies than before.

Don’t believe me? Examine the injury list for any of the 16 clubs. Actually, let’s move in a level and examine the injury list for Penrith five-eighth James Maloney. He’s been playing dinged for months with back, foot, toe and thumb problems before finally being taken down by a knee ligament injury.

That’s life in the NRL, you say. Injuries happen. Sure, but 26 rounds jammed with Origin and other games just heightens the risk of them occurring.

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And that’s before we even start thinking about head impact, concussions and the like. While some like Paul Vautin want to scoff at the NRL exploring a ‘brain bunker’, concussion and head trauma is causing sporting league administrators sleepless nights across the world.

In the United States, the NFL has paid out around $688 million in two years to settle with players suffering brain trauma (including Parkinson’s disease and chronic traumatic encephalopathy) from playing the game. That amount’s already passed what the NFL budgeted to pay out over ten years. Don’t think for a second that players won’t take similar actions here in Australia.

So what’s the solution?

Fewer games. The current 26 is at least six rounds too many. Shave a few rounds by starting a little later, keeping out of the stifling heat and rock hard grounds early on.

It will be anathema to broadcasters, but the real impact is on the field. All it needs is someone courageous enough to make the call.

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It’s highly unlikely, but I’d love a season where each team plays each other just the once, making every game critical and leaving no margin for error.

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Games with meaning bring the crowds and ratings – not the same teams playing each other twice in a month.

More recovery. No more five-day breaks. Even with public holiday ‘event’ matches to consider, it’s not difficult to adjust your scheduling to avoid giving clubs five-day breaks – particularly after they’ve travelled interstate or to New Zealand.

A three-week Origin break and a mandatory week off after Game 3 for the players involved.

If the league must have a 26-round season, then they need to free up clubs so they can more easily adjust their squads to cover injuries. Let clubs trade players during the season up to June 30. Let players sign up to that deadline and move immediately. If a club wants to rest a topliner, let them pick who they want to replace them without having to ask for special dispensation.

The NRL needs to protect their most valuable asset: the players. Flogging them for a majority of the year is not how to do that. It bores the fans, puts the players at risk and impacts their ability to earn a living.

Something’s got to give.

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