Total Football NRL style: Positionless team possible in theory but unlikely to happen in the age of pigeonholed players

When Ted Lasso has a fever dream in the final series of the Apple+ hit show, his not so original idea was to have a positionless football team. 

How was he to know that his mushroom/BBQ sauce-induced vision in Amsterdam was a concept that had been tried by the Dutch in the 1970s who had dubbed it Total Football. 

Players moving around the field filling whichever role was required. Defenders who could slot into the attack up front, strikers who were just at home in midfield or at the back. 

Everyone apart from the goalkeeper switching around because they were skillful enough for any role. Revolutionary stuff. 

This concept has infiltrated basketball in recent years with teams rolling out line-ups with no traditional centre or point guard, just five players of “average height” by NBA standards who can all pass, dribble and shoot at an elite level. 

(Photo by Mark Nolan/Getty Images)

When there’s only five players on a team in a sport like basketball, this is less of a stretch despite being unorthodox. 

How would this concept apply to a rugby league side?

It’s an era of unprecedented specificity where players are pigeonholed into specialised roles – what used to be known as a second-rower is now a left edge forward who defends fifth in from the sideline and sticks to that rigid assignment. 

Funnily enough, players have never been physically so similar yet they have clearly defined roles even though some outside backs are bigger than many NRL forwards. 

Hooker is the goalkeeper equivalent – a unique, specialised role in league where it’s hard to be anything other than one of the shorter players on the field who must be able to pass effectively while also defend well above their weight.

Latrell Mitchell greets fans after South Sydney’s win in Tamworth. (Photo by Jenny Evans/Getty Images)

So if you had a hooker in the standard size and shape circa 2023, would it be beneficial to construct a side where the other 12 players could float between the role of a forward in the middle and the backs on the edges or to switch out the back to the last line of defence on occasion?

The hardest part in this theoretical exercise would be finding the current players who have the versatility, not just a standard bench utility. They would need to have size and speed but also be able to tackle at a high efficiency. 

The vast majority of NRL players these days are 10kg either side of 100 with similar physiques. 

There aren’t that many skinny wingers, roly-poly forwards or pint-sized playmakers any more. They’ve all pretty much been cast from the same mould of granite, honed by their homogenised weights programs. 

If the team had no designated playmaker in the traditional sense, that would mean your 12 floaters would all need to be able to do their share of work at first receiver and be able to kick both for distance and for accuracy in red-zone situations. 

The kind of player who would fit this bill would be someone like Jack Wighton or Cameron Munster, who started at fullback, made the transition into the halves but have the frame to handle multiple hit-ups or a greater defensive workload.

Or a past player like Laurie Daley, Brad Fittler, Brad Mackay, Wally Lewis or Andrew Johns, who were threats wherever they bobbed up on the field but also had superb tackling techniques.

This game theory would suit bigger-bodied playmakers who could take hit-ups in the middle of the ruck but also be on the end of an attacking movement or even jump out the back behind the front line whether the team has the ball or is on defence. 

Positional versatility is a strange beast in the modern game.

A generation ago players seemed to be much more adept at switching around. 

Centres were more skilful and would often fill in at five-eighth whereas nowadays they are definitely physically superior to their predecessors but their skills make-up is more like a second-rower – they have to be able to run a strong line and pass to the winger when needed. 

Ironically, as the 12 players in the defensive line spread out across the width of a field, there is an increased homogeneity in appearance and skill set yet they are mostly confined to strict channels on the field to operate. 

Brad Fittler and Andrew Johns of Australia hold the 1995 World Cup trophy. (Photo by Mark Leech/Getty Images)

After Origin II when he somehow thought it was a good idea to play Damien Cook at centre for the majority of the match when Tom Trbojevic went down injured, Fittler strangely said it was impossible to cover all positions with a four-player interchange rotation.

Not true. It’s only not possible because coaches insist on having at least three forwards and usually a specialist dummy-half like Cook as their back-ups.

In the age of frequent HIAs for any player on the field, a team should always have at least one player on the bench who can slot in anywhere in the backline.

Funnily enough the Blues did that in their next match with Clint Gutherson alongside a back-up hooker in Reece Robson and two forwards and they only played him for the final few minutes when Josh Addo-Carr was hamstrung. 

Specificity is overdone in the NRL. It is highly unlikely we’d ever see a Total Football style plan where players switch around in game on a regular basis.

But they should be able to cover at least three or four spots on the field at the drop of a hat rather than be restricted to a specific role like in the NFL when being robotic in a singular skill is all that’s required of most players.