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How to overhaul the NRL

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Roar Guru
21st September, 2019
28

In rugby league, a single refereeing call can change an entire game. The semi-final between South Sydney and Manly was one such match.

Year after year NRL refereeing is becoming less consistent. Cody Walker getting sin-binned for a shove is a joke, and as for Jake Trbojevic, Dane Gagai was in the way blocking his path and Trbojevic could have chosen to go around him. I agree it’s a penalty, but it isn’t a sin-bin offence. It wasn’t a try-scoring situation.

So with that in mind, I have a few ideas to fix the NRL.

1. Rewrite the rule book
I’m not saying we should make the game a no-holds-barred encounter; we should just take a look at the current rule book and keep the most basic rules while dumping the complex ones. The rules are changing too much, which causes a lot of confusion. Go back to the basics and make it simple. It’s not rocket science.

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2. Bring back the biff
I see this happen a lot. Players get pissed off with each other all the time and want to kick the shit out of each other but are afraid of being sent to the sin bin. It causes too many stoppages, wasted time and frustration. Just bring back the biff!

3. Fix the bunker
I know a lot of people want to get rid of it, but it won’t happen. The bunker takes too much time to reach decisions, which is just frustrating. Take four looks at it and if you can’t make a decision, go with the on-field referee.

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4. Keep the players in line
I know no-one wants to go through another off-season from hell, reading about players getting in trouble. We should let them go out and have fun during summer, but they should stay out of trouble. During the preseason and the season proper focus should be on footy and professionalism. Players partying the night before a game has never been a good look. It’s not 1999 anymore, so stop partying like it is.

5. Put Gus Gould in charge
I know I’ve said this multiple times, but as the months roll on, more and more people are calling for it. He’s been involved in the game his whole life and has seen it evolve. He’s even said he’ll do it free of charge and will fix the game in 12 months. Let the man do it.

I could go on and on but it will take you forever to read this, plus the first four points are the main targets. It isn’t funny anymore.

Roarers, what fixing in the game do you think needs to be done?

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