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Four simple NRL fan requests for season 2022

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Expert
21st February, 2022
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The opening week of NRL trials are done and what we learned about our teams is almost certainly questionable, as the days continue to count down briskly towards the March 10 kick-off.

While fans will be watching the next phase of trials closely, their minds will be more acutely tuned to the start of the home and away season, how individual teams will line-up and the way the game will look after the new tweak to the six-again rule.

It wont take long for some to be irate, crying for justice and cynical about certain aspects of the competition, yet at least a portion of such sentiment could be alleviated if four obvious frustrations were addressed by the Australian Rugby League Commission.

1 Apply a consistent standard from Round 1

It is as obvious as the proverbial nose on your face that refereeing interpretations and the sharpness of focus they place on different aspects of the game, alter throughout a typical NRL season.

We have seen a few “crack-downs” in recent times, whether it be adjudicating high contact, the application of the ten-metre rule or the threshold used to determine when sin-bin and send-off powers should be used.

The moving of goal posts mid-season actually annoys fans more than an interpretation with which they merely disagree. When an offence committed and unpunished suddenly brings down the weight of the law two weeks later, the true definition of inconsistency sees the game’s officialdom at a point bordering on farce.

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Lay out clear standards and expectations, apply them during Round 1 and continue to do so for the entire season, particularly in the finals’ series.

Even if some fans disagree with the interpretation being used to inform a decision, the fact that it remains intact without variation will eventually earn their acceptance of it and stop at least some of the furore that transpires when the paying fan loses an understanding of just what constitutes an infringement of the rules.

2/ Tell the whistle-blowers to be quiet
A bugbear of many is the constant chatter that emanates from the mouths of referees during NRL matches.

Shouting towards and warning off-side players of a potential penalty from many metres away, naming and shaming ‘dominant’ and ‘surrender’ tackles, as well as the rather head scratching use of the word ‘moooooove’ to encourage players to clear the ruck area, are all somewhere near the top of the hit lists of those hoping for less verbal referees.

A little tip for the men and women in fluoro.

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Rugby league players know they are off-side, they are attempting to be so. Many are constantly trying to milk penalties and all have no intention whatsoever of clearing the ruck area until they have pushed your patience to within a millimetre of breaking point.

So it might be best to simply cease the chummy first name based conversations and just apply the rules of the game as they stand. If you could also do it relatively quietly, that would be appreciated.

Referee Ashley Klein speaks with Joseph Manu of the Roosters after receiving a high tackle from Latrell Mitchell of the Rabbitohs
(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

3/ Admit that club trainers are blatantly cheating and keep them off the field

Whilst cognisant of the potentially serious repercussions of head injuries and concussion and the fact that doctors, physiotherapists and trainers do a brilliant job when a player is in desperate need of attention during play, the constant presence of a 14th man in and behind attacking structures and defensive lines is nothing but a blight on the game.

All clubs do it; some relying on a talented and skilled ex-player to help guide younger men as they develop better game sense and positional understanding.

Water bottle in hand, the trainers zip on and off the field, running messages, giving instructions and even occupying visual space that could easily be interpreted as changing the field of vision of the opposition.

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The game would be far better off without their excessive involvement and their work should be restricted to interaction with players actually in distress and not merely the ear that a coach needs to be ‘in’ at that precise moment.

4/ Stop the Bunker playing with technology

The NRL will have its first debate around downward pressure and/or the grounding of the ball during the act of attempting to score a try in the opening fixture of the season.

The Bunker will be called upon to adjudicate and most likely, as is usually the case, get the decision right.

However, despite an obvious recent attempt to make the entire process of reviewing key moments in the game quicker, officialdom still watched thousands of slow motion replays in 2021; often flipping back and forth between frames multiple times with the average fan sometimes left wondering exactly why.

It is the most inane aspect of rugby league and one easily solved with a simple strategy. Allow the Bunker to view each available angle once, at fifty per cent of normal speed and then make a decision. Should the facts remain unclear, defer back to the on-field call, as has now become the norm in the game.

Of course, rugby league is far from a perfect science and controversy will not be far away. However, I would argue that the four issues raised above are considered both important by many fans and capable of improving the competition were they to be acted upon.

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