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.
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 (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.
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.
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.
Matt H
Roar Guru
What I really want to see is some imagination used to determine how a referee signals a penalty for above the nipple line.
Matt H
Roar Guru
"I also wonder if there would be any drop in revenue as a result of this change? Sure the number of games would decrease but would more spectators turn up to those games being played?" This wold be true Paul, except that it's TV rights that bring the lion's share of revenue to the game. By shaving 11 rounds of football from the calendar, do you think Channel 9 and Foxtel would increase their commitment? They have significantly less hours of advertising time to sell.
duecer
Guest
What has saved RL here from a collapse in numbers like England and especially France, is the influx of PI players. Without this input, the playing numbers considering the increase in the population, would make very sad reading.
BA Sports
Roar Guru
9 million more people yet fewer juniors and fewer teams in country NSW and QLD, and very limited impact in non-traditional league states. None of that equates to having more elite teams.
Jay Wright
Roar Rookie
the round is far too long along with all the other games, rep, all stars, and international tournament, file it down to only 22 rounds. that should be enough.
Big DOgg
Guest
The other thing about having a shorter, 16 round, each team just plays each other once season, is that it might bring back the crowds. I love NRL, but i struggle to watch any other the game besides my team because its just so depressing watching the Dogs play the Eels at Allianz with a stadium literally 1/8 full, its an awful look for the game and we all know this. Each team playing each other once would be a much more important event and thus bring in bigger crowds. Could have a stand alone origin series in the middle and it wouldn't so drastically effect the Premiership comp. Its nice to daydream but this will never happen saaaaaadface. If you guys were wondering my team is the MIGHTY CBR RAIDERS UP THE MILK!!!! 89' 90' 94' 19'....
Zavjalova
Roar Rookie
Shortening the season = millions in lost revenue. Won't happen.
Richmond Tiger
Guest
I think the NRL season should be reduced to ten tv rounds and perhaps the Roar could put in a tender to be the main tv carrier. That means each team plays ten games televised and all other rounds and games would be decided the Sunday night of the last televised game by a toss of a coin that night. That way the players and fans are both sheltered from having to put up with too much NRL. Everybody's happy?
duecer
Guest
This is the tragedy of the RLWC - some will think this is helping to expand the game, but all it's doing is killing off interest in traditional RL nations with teams that have a loose affinity to the home nation made up with ex NRL players. To have France excluded from moving out of the pool rounds by a Lebanese team where most of the players wouldn't have even visited does nothing in trying to bolster the ever thinning ranks of French RL.
Bee bee
Guest
We had 16 teams in 1987 when Australia’s population was 16 million. Australia’s population is now 25 million and we have........(16 teams). Regional youth unemployment is terrible. Those kids need a shot of the greatest game of all, STAT.
duecer
Guest
Finally! A sensible idea.
Major Bumsore
Guest
The UN runs this country.
jamesb
Guest
I started watching the NRL, or the old NSWRL, where it only had 22 rounds. Each team played 22 games and there were split rounds. By 2023, the start of the next broadcast deal, the NRL has to expand by including Brisbane II and Perth. Then go back to having 22 rounds and have 3 rep weekends
jamesb
Guest
The risk with reducing the number of teams is if you lose fans from the game.
jamesb
Guest
The NRL season starts earlier so that it could fit in the origin schedule, something that the AFL doesn't have to worry about.
woodart
Guest
quite agree paul dawson. too many club games have been played, and when a team can lose the first five or six games and still get into the playoffs, it means that there isnt much on the line. why bother to go to the game if its that meaningless. as someone else on here has pointed out, there have been some very poor crowds recently. too much product, and especially in sydney, a saturated market. taking club games overseas might sound good, but who in america knows, or cares about some club in aus. if league is really serious about growing the game, it has to play international games.
Midfielder
Guest
Chris I still recall the crowd when we scored a try with the Owl call... My fav moment there was when a kept calling a big fat bloke from Fairfield City ..""FATSO"" anyway he was getting madder and madder as he was a prop and at scrums I would give he a little kick in the ankle of a flick behind the ear with a your to fat to catch me... Anywho I was being held and he came charging in like a bull elephant and I managed to step out of the way but my trailing leg by accident tripped him and he landed on his belly with a massive bang of air escaping. So I picked up some grass off the field and gave it to him and he screamed whats that for and I told him it food for the fat old cow he was. He got up and started swinging and swinging and swinging so the ref sent him off. He was on the side lines screaming at me ... he had totally lost it and I was having a ball giving him various hand signals.. The ref stopped the game and sent him from the field ... he stormed off and his car was parked in the street behind the ground and across from the wool centre he tore off at a rate of knots blasting his horn and waving his fist and ran into a telegraph pole no one was hurt. The crowd and most players burst out laughing as he backed off the pole and drove away with both pride a dented left guard of his car.
Kangas
Roar Rookie
Agree with all of the above
Chris.P.Bacon
Guest
Ha!...you're not wrong Midfielder...they're huge. If you don't know....the Owls are sitting mid table in the Ron Massey Cup with 2 games left (and only five points separating teams 2 to 6). The Owls should get up against the Magpies this weekend and hopefully cement a finals spot.
AJ Mithen
Expert
Fair comment AFnp27