In the Experts Roar this week, the issue of speed in the game was the topic du jour and it appears the majority were reasonably content with the current tempo, citing 2021 as something of a bridge too far when it came to the expansive style and sheer pace that we saw in many of the matches, particularly late in the season.
In 2021, the Australian Rugby League Commission made no secret of its desire to quicken the product, expanding and solidifying the use of the set restart rule.
Alongside the removal of scrums previously set when a kick or tackled player crossed the sideline and shot clock count downs for line-goal drop-outs, players these days have fewer opportunities than ever to stall things for a moment and suck in a few deep breaths that might allow them to get to the next contest in reasonable shape.
Modern rugby league has become something of a rush. Players must move briskly to scrums and drop-outs and when they face up to nine or ten consecutive tackles in defence, the entire exercise becomes a chaotic scramble. Without excessive bunker intervention, the matches actually fly past incredibly quickly, with only the dreaded and tedious video referee dragging games out to the two-hour mark.
In the oddest of ironies, the players no doubt enjoy such video referee delays when under pressure and requiring a break in play that could potentially alter momentum, while at the same time disliking the frequent over-analysis and questionable interpretation taking place just as much as their coaches and the average fan.
The clear result of changes that began as far back as 2016 and the newer ones expanded and streamlined during last year’s season has been more points and significantly so.
In 2018 there were 40.56 points scored per game in the NRL. In 2019 that figure fell slightly to 39.3 before rebounding northwards a little in 2020 to 41.96. With Peter V’landys and the Commission keen to reinvent the product presented to fans after the early days of the pandemic had caused a cessation of play, the set restart was implemented.
(Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)
By the end of 2020, it was rampant.
All sport is won and lost on momentum and the new rule made it near impossible to shift, as teams rumbled downfield, with a constantly retreating defence incapable of producing any line-speed in order to thwart the pending danger. As a result, in 2021 margins of victory blew out, thrashings were common and by season’s end, and total of 45.87 points per game had been scored. Excluding finals matches, that average was 48.84.
Most alarmingly, the gap between the top teams in the race for the finals and the battling also-rans became vast, to the point of embarrassment for those on the receiving end. Whilst it might be easy to simply argue that it is the task of the struggling clubs to get better, that does little to address the impact such drubbings and subsequent fan disinterest has on a club’s bottom line.
The rule went too far and after coaches began exploiting it by instructing teams to concede a penalty early in sets whilst in excellent field position, happy to defend for seven tackles rather than concede early metres and potentially be faced with two or three consecutive sets, the need for change became urgent.
The Commission responded in 2022 with a tweak that saw a traditional penalty awarded to attacking teams inside their own 40-metre area, rather than an automatic set restart. The result has been stunning on the scoreboard. At the completion of Round 4, just 36.03 points per game have been scored, four matches have resulted in less than 20 points and just two individual teams have passed the 40-point barrier, after 53 did so during 2021.
That 2021 home-and-away season average of 48.86 points per game is almost 13 points higher than we have seen across the opening month.
Personally, I actually prefer it, with some of the gritty defence on show thus far rarely seen last season, outside of matches between the absolute best teams. Yet what are V’landys and his team making of the data considering their determined effort to speed up the game and produce more tries for fans to cheer?
Will there be an admission of fault and open dissatisfaction with their decision to rethink the six-again rule? Have the coaches once again one-upped the administrators after cleverly manipulating the rule in 2021 and now fear the set restart far less?
Most likely, the coaches have played this one well and despite something of a correction in scoring totals thus far, less cricket scores and 40-point hammerings will have little impact on how most people continue to enjoy their rugby league.
In fact, there might even be a few like me who enjoy it more.
Heyou
Roar Rookie
Thanks for a good read. The slow, mean ruck is back. How is a ruck infringement defined, other than not back 10, these days? It’s a mystery to me. I’m not the smartest tool in the box but the subjectivity remains, with various refs applying the rule for some things but not others and at some point but not others. Why even have the tackle restart for ruck infringements if it’s not doing the job it was supposed to do - like clean up the dirty, messy ruck and provide for a quick play of the ball and thus quite often a piggy back 6 again as the defending team can’t make it back 10, thus making the game l so much faster and more exciting for the spectator, give more advantage to the attack and getting rid of the mean 4 man tackle, wrestle, crusher, chook wing, head high, illegal ball-stripping, knee- crunching, hip-drop, cannonball, shoulder barge head clash…there’s more I know. Does the tackle restart work in place of a penalty? I don’t think so. I still don’t like it. Being very old school, I will just have to grimace and bear it and try to find some merit in it, whether it’s overused or underused or unevenly used or left right out on some days by some refs in some games. I’m still spectating and yelling and swearing and screaming and jumping off my coach couch and strangling myself with my much loved premiership scarf, so it can’t be that terrible really. :silly:
The Barry
Roar Guru
He was a pretty regular contributor Yeah, hope he’s okay… hopefully he’s on holiday and having a nice break from talking rubbish with the likes of us…
Tony
Roar Guru
That's the one, good fellow indeed. Just haven't seen any posts or articles from him for a while now. I hope he's okay.
The Barry
Roar Guru
The dragons fan Paul? Good fella if that’s the one you mean Not sure, haven’t heard from him in a while? What made you think of him…?
Tony
Roar Guru
Hey TB. I wonder where Roar correspondent Paul went?
The Barry
Roar Guru
The banjo would work great at Souths games…
JennyFromPenny
Guest
Just to highlight how the entire NRL community has been so brain dead for the last two years: A team gets a 7-tackle restart, the defending team is very slow getting off the tackled player on the zero tackle, bell rings - 6 more tackles. How many extra tackles did the team receive for that set ?
Rob
Guest
Compare Barnett “You raised raised the forearm/elbow and made dangerous contact, you’re off” have 6 weeks to JWH raised forearm/elbow in the 5th minute on Nanai? Sutton says “Okay I’ll talk to him Chad”. Hey Jarred be careful raising the elbow into the defenders please “? Sutton “yes James (Tedesco) I seen it, Tom Dearden was it “ Tom, Tom sorry who”. “Sorry Tom Gilbert was it.” Bunker “can you confirm Tom Gilbert has taken a support player out in back play “ okay yes James I know it’s a professional foul. Tom you’re off for 10. “
LMM
Guest
Also the only sport where coaching is mostly about bending the rules first, and playing the game second.
Rob
Guest
TB I hope you’re not about Keary? Keary was never behind the man carrying the football. He’s illegal obstructing the defensive line running interference ahead of the football between them and player on the outside. Nice dive though.
Rob
Guest
Totally agree. Everyone is doing it. If you’re winning then usually you gained the dominance in the ruck no question. Thing is how do they get the players playing football and focus less on cynical play? We can’t look a penalty counts and simply say look it’s even the ref did a good job. They didn’t penalise Ponga or DCE for text book offsides, Many for text book deliberately standing in front off the ruck in an offside position on tackle 5 or Foran for making contact on Ponga before he touched the ball. They did however disallow a try on account of Foran playing the man not the ball. He had no chance of stopping the winger in that situation. Ignore simple stock standard penalties and then applying an obstruction interpretation to disallow a try is really hard to swallow IMO. It’s basically why supporters get upset when watching the game.
eagleJack
Roar Guru
All teams wrestle. All teams try to control the ruck. Especially in a downpour. The Knights got away with plenty of ruck infringements. You can go through every single game and find dozens missed by the refs. It isn't a rule that is applied consistently. But unlike a lopsided penalty count, very few question it because the stats around it are average at best.
The Barry
Roar Guru
I mostly agree, particularly with the defence wanting to slow things down and the attack wanting to speed up and it’s the way it’s always been But it is the refs job to make sure there’s a balance I also agree with the problems of how the NRL will handle it. Instead of there being a consistent even way of managing it across games, rounds and the season it will be the usual peaks and troughs between blitzes and ignoring it…
Clint
Roar Rookie
Fair point TB. But my issue with the rumblings coming from the media and NRL HQ is that a crackdown or some other hair-brained scheme will come in to combat some “wrestling emergency” and the result will have far greater impact on the outcome of future games than a few tactical slow peels will. Newcastle had ball in play for 25 mins last night. 10 minutes in the bin for Manly would have equated to them being down one player for 20-40% of Newcastle’s time with ball in hand. For what, Manly squeezing out an extra 60seconds of held time? Imagine if they go on a binning spree next week? Will it be equally enforced for all teams? Will milking at the play-the-ball get much worse than it already is? To me it’s a part of the game. In defense you have to slow it down as much as you can. If your opposition wants to play one-out football all night then they deserve to have 3-4 people meet them in the tackle, put them on their back and peel off one by one. If they shift the ball, use shape, pass flat and work hard to find their front they will get quick play the balls whether or not the ref has anything to do with it.
Rob
Guest
Were the Knights trying to come to the cynical foul party Manly were throwing? I say this because I’ve watched Knights and it doesn’t suit them nor are they on my top 10 wrestling teams. Manly are a big team and it suits them defensively.
Adam
Roar Guru
The Panthers have the panther growl, the Raiders the horn. So any random noise will do. I think a quick guitar riff is a little more rock 'n' roll though
Stuart Thomas
Expert
As long as JMK is scoring tries, kicking, assisting and making 40 tackles a game, I'll be happy!
Stuart Thomas
Expert
Perhaps a quick strum on the banjo? That would really add something.
Adam
Roar Guru
I know the NRL will appreciate the pizazz - "power play!" it can have a different bell to the 6 again!
The Barry
Roar Guru
I agree the wrestle topic is way over stated but… Average play the ball speed is a good overall indicator of the pace of the game, but not so much as an indicator of when a team is transgressing If a team makes 200 tackles giving up an average 3.5 seconds per play the ball, obviously their average is 3.5 seconds If they deliberately slow 15 of those play the balls all the way down to 7 seconds, the overall average only increase to 3.8 seconds, which is still within an acceptable range But 15 play the balls at 7 seconds at critical times of the game is pretty substantial Manly didn’t slow every play the ball down last night, but they did enough at critical times to be noticeable as a tactic. I’m not saying they do it every tackle or every week or anything