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Opinion
When I last played rugby league nearly 45 years ago, a ‘six pack’ was something you couldn’t wait to get your hands on after the game, ‘guns’ lay loaded under your bed, and a ‘recovery session’ was lying on the lounge on Saturday morning after a big Friday night.
Weight lifting was only seen at the Olympics and a warm-up consisted of stretching to put your socks on.
Training was generally held on Tuesday and Thursday nights, unless you were one of the star players and had something better on, and the regime was fairly predictable: a dozen pushups, followed by eight laps of the oval, and an hour-and-a-half of ball play.
Most fields inevitably had a couple of dark corners where the inadequate flood lights just didn’t reach, and if you were one of the smarter and lazier forwards, you could hide in the dark for a while and miss a couple of laps.
The ball-play sessions were a highlight though, particularly for the backs, as the forwards just became more confused than ever, and you could practice plays that were virtually impossible to pull off on game days, but still look like a lair.
Opposed ball-sessions against a lower-grade side were sometimes held and often resulted in more high tackles and brawls than you’d see in a 1980s Origin match. These sessions were, on the whole, enjoyable, and didn’t suffer from the intervention of either a referee or judiciary, and any lingering disputes or vendettas could always be settled later (there were no lights in the car park after all).
Obviously, the training highlight was the obligatory bonding session at the local, still in your training gear of course, and anyone who left before closing time or failed to buy their rounds was unlikely to remain in the side for long. Responsible service of alcohol was limited to not spilling any.
Yes, those were the days – life was simple and the game was played by average guys who just treated it as sport and a bit of fun.
Things weren’t that much different at the elite level either – although the grade players were no doubt fitter and more skillful than those playing park footy, they looked just like you and I.
Most forwards played at 95kgs or less, with the occasional exceptions like Arthur Beetson, Bill Hamilton and Bob O’Reilly pushing up to 105kgs. A half or five-eighth was probably 70kgs wringing wet, wingers were all speedsters and probably tipped the scales at no more than 75, and even the most robust centres – like Ken Maddison, Alec Tennant and Roy Ferguson – would have been no more than 85kgs.
Arthur Beetson featured in a Tooheys advertising campaign (Big League magazine 1980).
Contrast the size of those players with today’s cohort. The average weight of the four starting props in Origin 2 was 116 kgs, all of the back fives were as big or bigger than most of the forwards of yesteryear, and all four halves would have been big enough to play in the all-conquering Souths pack of the 1970s.
When you look at the likes of David Fifita and Payne Haas, you can’t help but be reminded of the cyborgs from the Terminator movie franchise.
We’ve seen a significant growth in size, to the extent now that smaller players are rapidly becoming extinct, or at the very least targets for much bigger attacking players. Body shapes of various playing positions are becoming almost indistinguishable and interchangeable, with wingers often doing the same work as front-row forwards, hookers playing more like halfbacks, and edge second-rowers taking the place of inside centres.
No doubt the increasing professionalism has enabled players to become bigger and more powerful, but at what cost?
While fitness levels have increased, there doesn’t seem to be any real increase in skill. If anything, current coaching trends seem to deliberately limit the role of some positions, so that there are fewer offloads, a drop in support play, and a focus on rehearsed set plays rather than eyes-up football.
These limitations make many attacking moves more predictable and repetitive – e.g. three hit-ups followed by a second-man shift – making it easier for defenders to employ gang tackles. Throw in the bigger bodies involved in these tackles, and you have far greater impact and body trauma for those involved. This has contributed to the high injury rate.
Anyway, I guess that’s progress and we can’t hold the game back as it strives to become even more professional.
I just hope that the rise of the machines doesn’t remove the fun and flair that makes rugby league such an enjoyable game to play and watch.
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