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Opinion
Rugby league and quantum physics are both complex and mysterious, and after a lifetime spent studying both I have come to the conclusion I’ll never fully understand either.
It’s a well known fact that rugby league isn’t rocket science, but there are startling similarities between quantum physics and rugby league.
Quantum physics is humans trying to simply explain nature at its most basic level, while rugby league is simply human nature at its most basic level.
There are many links between the two fields. In 2011, the Higgs particle was experimentally confirmed, and just a few months later Ray Higgs was confirmed in the Parramatta Hall of Fame. Surely this was no coincidence.
Quantum physics tells us that fundamental particles can only exist in certain states. This is very similar to how rugby league can only exist in certain states.
Until recently, the Standard Model of Physics contained 16 elementary particles. With the addition of the Higgs there are now 17. This is the main reason the Dolphins have been added to the competition.
Wayne Bennett will be the first coach of the Dolphins. (Photo by Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images)
Just like the universe itself, the Australian rugby league universe was once concentrated in one small place, but is expanding even as we speak.
Whether you are talking rugby league or quantum physics, I think everyone agrees that the role of the observer is critical.
Schrodinger’s wave function tells us that every pass is both backward and forward until it is observed by the referee. At this point the wave function collapses. In much the same way we don’t really notice a scrum until it collapses.
Every time you disagree with a referee’s decision you are simply restating the relativistic assertion that different observers cannot agree with each other’s account of events. Therefore the answer to “Was the kicker tackled late?” depends entirely upon your frame of reference.
The most pre-eminent scientists are each year awarded the Nobel prize by the King of Sweden. Why do we not have something similar in rugby league?
Although I have never been able to bring myself to watch it, I’m told that annually the game holds an elaborate ceremony to hand out the Messenger Medals for the best player in each position.
But why aren’t we rewarding the game’s greatest thinkers. During the after match grand final presentations each year I’d like the former player who has made the greatest intellectual contribution to the game be awarded the Gould Prize by King Wally Lewis.
The leading thinkers in each field have always been eccentric characters. Einstein, Feynman and Yukawa are giants in Modern Physics, just as Elias, Stuart and Sailor are in rugby league.
These men are strange misfits, uncomfortable in regular society. They spend much of their time mumbling to themselves, deeply thinking their beautiful thoughts.
I recently heard a former NSW champion on the radio explain that he was 9.9 percent sure something would happen. This caused some confusion until he explained that he always does percentages out of 10. This has caused me to reexamine many of my assumptions about the nature of mathematics.
Just another example that when these great men speak … we listen, and the world is a better place for their game-changing insights.
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