How to overhaul the NRL

I played league as a kid from 1961, never much good but loved it. I went to a rah rah school but hated the fact they felt superior so wouldn't walk across the road to watch a union international for free. If there's ever a game with multiple rule interpretations it's union so the further we stay from that pedantic rubbish, the better. For mine, go back to basics with 1 ref, 4 touchies so they each only get 50 metres to cover and do what the current second official does, if the ball gets stripped you restart the tackle count, loose carry going backwards is play on, high shot is 5 minutes in the bin & if they dawdle it's 10, trips are a send off, obstruction calls only made where someone is obstructed, and most of all if the player playing the ball moves forward or sideways off the mark where they wre tackled, it's an instant handover to the defender. Oh, the clock stops when the ball is out of play, I noticed the other night that combined 'time in possession' for the storm & eels added up to about 61 minutes, we're robbed of 19 mins play!

Discussions become futile when someone feels the need to point out that ''some point in the future isn't today'' If you think technology won't be ruling on forward passes in the future , it's a valid point of view. I happen to think the opposite. As it's in the future I'm not going to pretend I'm correct.

Given he starts off by telling us he doesn't know what Walker or Trbojevic were actually sin binned for, not sure we should listen that attentively to this one.

Um you just agreed to a knock on being fine, simple logic: "Fumble rule would improve the game a lot and get rid of a lot of stoppages" At some point in the future isn't today. Simple logic. Getting Sony to redesign the Hawkeye system will cost money. Simple logic. If the system can adjust for momentum then I'm all in,but you can't magically assume it away in the same way you can't support knock ons and then back peddle like a pro bowl cornerback

Point 3 is straight from the Gus Gould playbook. Cry that something has to be done, and then offer no solution as to what it is.

ot in the age of sponsorships and a politically correct world where mothers will steer their kids away from playing the game in favour of less violent sports like soccer as a consequence. It’s a disappointing but unavoidable truth. God forbid a parent wanting to make sure their kids aren't experiencing needless concussions and thus f'ing up adulthood. Papi, players retire at 32. They still have a whole lot of living after. Their brains are actually quite important to the next phase of their life.

:thumbup: It's because hair pulling and slapping is part of the fabric of the game that we cannot, nay will not, live without! Haha, as if hair pulling and slapping was ever or will ever be a good look that any one of us wants to see. :laughing:

Satire?

Divisions, like Euro soccer has. Two up two down relegation/promotion.

You had me at 2. Bring back the biff! Personally, I'm in favour of that change to a sensible extent but it is NOT the answer. Unfortunately, it won't work. Not in the age of sponsorships and a politically correct world where mothers will steer their kids away from playing the game in favour of less violent sports like soccer as a consequence. It's a disappointing but unavoidable truth. Think also of the potential for civil lawsuits for aggravated assault and potential damages for players whose careers are ended or are out of the game due to injury for an extended period. Remember, the law with regard to aggravated assault is not suspended once players run onto a football field. This was exemplified in 1985 when Steve Rogers successfully sued Bulldogs hooker Mark Bugden AND the Canterbury-Bankstown Rugby League Football Club. Les Boyd was advised by solicitors to settle with Daryl Brohman and pay financial damages for a reckless high tackle during a State of Origin game in 1983 after Boyd admitted he was told to "go out and belt the shit out of someone". Ultimately, the NRL has a duty of care to it's players and cannot allow aggravated assault to be an acceptable part of the game not without finding themselves subject to a potential sea of lawsuits or class actions that will make the Jack De Belin pre-season litigation look like a walk in the park by comparison. Boxing and MMA may have worked out a way to incorporate physical violence into their sport but it is heavily regulated and there are periods of 6 months or more between bouts to safeguard long-term damage to athletes. NRL clubs cannot and will not accept the loss of multiple players from their squad for the majority of the season just to satisfy a demand for bloodlust from the masses. They simply cannot afford to. That is also in part why a lot of the collision and high impact technique has been taken out of the tackle and instead it is an effort to absorb impact and nullify momentum with less risk of injury. If the bad old days of footy brawls return it will be the death of the game. Sadly, "Bring Back the Biff", although a rallying cry I am fond of, is an echo of a bygone era that will never return.

Do you really think that technology won't be able to detect whether a pass is thrown forward at some stage in the future? I have blind faith that it will but time will tell. I'm not sure who thinks a knock on is fine and why not rule on both if technology can do it particularly if it's on the run. If it proves to be too onerous they can always adjust the machine to allow a degree of ''forwardness''. If it's consistent it won't matter.

No biff. One ref. Bunker stays but no interference out until ref calls for it, he may start to trust his own, ... and his touch judges decisions. Part of the games previous appeal was the character building side of it. Learning to deal with the fact that sometimes life favours you and other times it does not. Either make them play the football according to the rules or just allow the defensive team to challenge for it as originally intended. Play the ball on the mark , not 5 metres away, the players are already stressed getting back the ten without having to backpedal a further five each time. Penalise forward passes and tunnel ball tactics. Tripping must go, including the 'Cumberland throw' which was outlawed but made popular again by Alfie, the use of the legs to trip the ballholder is wrong, wrong, wrong. This was once a man's game decided by the players on the field and genuine friendships were forged by teams and opposition alike. We are losing all of this. Somebody help!!!!

Hi Guys, Talking from experience having lived in Northern England, until 2012 then moving to Perth Rugby League needs to grow internally and externally to succeed. First off, don’t call the game National if it is NOT allowed to expand. Why Perth NOW seems to have started to be excluded from the new TV deal and the Leagues expansion is total folly!! The game needs three new clubs to begin with. My preference would be Perth ,South Island- NZ and second club in Brisbane. With regards to TV audiences it’s no brainer? NZ time zone right through to Western Australian time frames are unbeatable? Perth is a great sporting market and League needs the “Green light” from Greenberg and ARL/NRL now ,so over in WA we can put processes and procedures in place to allow things to “bed in “and for the professional club and region to grow and succeed. There is still a massive “Hangover” over the Western Force losing its Rugby status. We can tap into this current hardship and make RL the next success story after the Perth Wildcats ,who have grown their brand brilliantly. The Force unfortunately in real terms were a complete failure with regards to success and a winning continuity. That fact can not be dismissed.Plus a lot of Ruggar types state that RU is growing ,but this a little far fetched? RU is basically a Perth Metro feature. Rugby League is actually providing growth far quicker regionally. Up in the Pilbara & Kimberley area’s right up to NT border RL is starting to get footholds. Rugby League is participated in Kunnarra, Karratha, Wickham,Port Hedland Tom Price and Paraburdoo. If and when the Perth Pirates fires up, the club should take a couple of games regional. Play one Home game at Geraldton and one down at Bunbury or Albany? With the International Game the main problem is the NSW centric management and media. Paul Kent has his head totally buried in the sand with his unproven comments over SuperLeague and its players and growth. Who needs enemies when he spouts his nonsense every night on NRL 360. Finally you only have to look at our last Rugby League World Cup and the current Rugby Union World Cup to see the International Game needs Australia to take this part of the game serious. Australia needs International completion to grow the game. Otherwise the game dies. Next frontier Canada & USA. We need to win this war?

Also worth noting I think the company behind Hawkeye is already involved in the NRL bunker with replay control.

The Hawkeye thing yeah, sure but simple logic would also say there a lot more angles to cover in NRL forward passes than the directly opposing two ends of a cricket pitch for lbw. So if money was unlimited, sure, but last time I checked simple logic said it wasn't. Also I'm not sure hawkeye in this instance would be that great as it isn't really what it was designed for. With missiles etc and cricket and tennis its about where it was likely to go (tennis freeze frames don't capture the position) - we've already got that information on the forward pass. Also there's the cost benefit, it's obvious in cricket for LBW, where the margin for error is very high as is the effect. That just isn't the case here, "fixing" forward passes is nero fiddling whilst Rome burns. Simple logic would say investing heavily in new technology to solve an immaterial issue is flawed thinking. If it was that easy why don't we have hot spot and snicko for the finger touches? If you look at what happens in a fumble in the NFL I'm not sure it improves the spectacle to have a free for all on possession, it also then calls into question why is a forward pass bad in league but a knock on fine? I just don't see what improvement you get out of that change.

The minute you suggested putting Gus Gould in charge ,you lost me. Anyone who wants to bend the rules )(and all those professional fouls were legitimate 10 min),just for the finals series needs to keep well clear of running the code. We have to drag ourselves into the 21st Century, the biff is out kaput ,gonski. The game is tough enough as it is.Continue along those lines and the game will shrivel to a novelty sport.

I'm sorry Adrian, are you drinking when you roll these out? You want to encourage players to smack each other around because it takes too long to sort a 'handbags at 10 paces'? I'd like to see how long it takes to separate Burgess and JWH after they've landed a few on each other. I wonder which one will stand back with a "good shot old son, you won this battle..." More seriously, you condoning fighting by these pumped up knuckle heads for 8months then send them on booze filled vacations and tell them to behave? How about teaching them to be responsible citizens first and players second. Fix the bunker by reducing their scope? Ok, until it costs your team the game. If it was that obvious it won't need more than 4 looks. I don't like the fact it takes so long but I got no where else to be at that time so get the call right - not quick. The rule book isn't rocket science. Don't punch, don't slap or attack the head in any way. You have 6 tackles, pass backwards in an effort to score a try by placing the ball on or over the line without running out. In defence, get back 10m after each tackle for 6 tackles. Don't attack the kicker while in the motion of kicking. If they make a break, don't impede in any manner their support players. Anything else?

Lets give Adrian some credit, I'm sure the position he holds has nothing to do with blindly agreeing with whatever knights legend Andrew Johns says...

1. No thanks. Rules are you've got to catch the ball, NFL is also a vastly different game - not sure we want a ruck forming for every dropped ball. The game actually made changes to reduce the points from kicks, hard to see them making these. 2. Newton has some issues with this. Not sure why you think it's going to be easy to account for momentum in a pass but think they take too long to tell what happened on a catch. 3. There's multiple suggestions on how to improve it. Yours unfortunately was the old method and it doesn't do much. The other thing could be, hey players don't slap someone. There's no footballing reason to slap them.

The slap outrage is about to do the rounds I'm guessing from the same biff commentators. Andrew "mini gus" John's has already come out with it's the PC brigade. Yep political correctness is all about banning slap in contact sports.... When did slapping and hair pulling become the line in the sand, the two things we must retain or lose the machismo of league?