The rugby league casualty ward is filling up at fast

Bigger squads ?, more players on the bench ? Heading backwards ! Despite the obvious pay decrease by spreading the cap over more players, and the cost to clubs of travelling with bigger squads the game is built around fatigue & bringing the smaller blocks into action as forwards tire. I suggest, 1/ a pre nominated player as 18th man to cover injury from deliberate foul play, with a send off 2/ Four on the bench, with 6 interchanges, a except to cover additional injury from deliberate foul play, with a send off. This would force coaches to carry a utility like Connor Watson on the bench to cover all injuries until late in the game

Tony, you're right. But it doesn't matter how big a player gets. The weakest parts are still the joints. No amount of weight work strengthens the few muscles and cartridges across places like the knees, ankles, elbows, and arms.

Price for the Cumberland Throw JA? Thought it was Alfie Langer. The first time I saw it, as an ex-Judo player of no fame at all, I recognised it as one of the foot throws we were taught. Ironically in my case, in the Lang Park Police Boys Club abutting Lang Park where Alfie practised his trade.

Hoppa was promoting “the digital age”. He tried to keep his finger on the pulse however his aim was inaccurate.

Good to see you kk. The 25min quarters is an interesting concept. I'm normally not in favour of quarters because I like the fatigue factor but with longer quarters, therefore, a longer game as well does pique my interest. Don't you worry about Al, you would make a very solid recruit.

I understand they can but you lose so much across the park. Most teams would have done scenario training but wouldn't be it be better to have a specialist back available even if not used?

I cannot remember to many players in the past seriously injuring themselves like snapping an achillies tendon without any contact. Are the players actually fitter now or just shaped differently from possibly too much gym time and weights. Brad Thorn talked about how he was genetically blessed with a body tailor made for rugby league and union. He said that he never twisted an ankle in all of his playing time. Cameron Smith was another player who always appeared to front up week in week out without any injury. I am not sure this current spike of injury numbers is a trend or not to be honest. I played in the 70s for about 18 years both league and union with little injury. Yet I played in a game with my best mate where a tackle that went wrong put him in a wheelchair for the last 40 years now. It has always been a high risk sport.

Yep, we should definitely have a look at expanding the bench. Football gradually expanded over the years and the restrictions never made much sense in a squad game, especially when teams were restricted to 3 or 5 bench players and often ran the risk of not carrying a reserve goalkeeper. In response to COVID, football has increased available substitutions from 3 to 5 because of the fixture crunch caused by the initial lockdowns and because so many players caught COVID in Europe and Sth America during the first waves. But there's a catch. While you can make 4 substitutions, you have limited windows - essentially, you can only stop the game 3 times. The NRL already limits interchanges. I'd be happy for teams to nominate 7 or 8 players but have a limit on how many they can use in a single game. Five, perhaps.

I'm sure you wouldn't see the likes of Ken Irvine, Steve Gearin, or Slippery Morris getting a run on the wing today, and being peppered with bombs, getting smashed coming off their own line, or getting bundled into the corner post diving into the corner !

"90 injured players is the equivalent of the 30-man playing rosters of three clubs." Yes, this checks out.

Yep ! There is not a lot of difference in the body sizes of the forwards and backs these days. The game is all about leg speed, yardage & impact with and without the ball. The quicker of these big bodies now goes into the backs where they need to do as much bullocking work as the forwards, but now doing it as the hard yards off their own lines. Yardage out of defence is vital for field position before any attack can be launched. Little guys in the back 5 are generally a liability these days.

Silver lining! Bet he wished he served his suspension fully now...