After many a season of rule changes that the ARL Commission has used to keep rugby league moving with the times and entertaining its audience, 2024 sees something of a pause.
As such, the game will look very much as it did in 2023, yet with one key change designed to increase the likelihood of teams winning back possession from restarts where they, more often than not, had been returning the ball willingly to the opposition by foot.
Kick-offs, as well as 20-metre and goal-line drop outs that leave the field of play on the full or fail to travel the required ten metres, will no longer be punished with a penalty. Instead, a scrum will pack down ten metres out from the line of the kick and ten metres in from touch.
The NRL’s intention is to insert more unpredictability into the game by encouraging teams to risk conceding ground to an opposition in the hope of claiming the ball back from a short kick.
“We undertook a thorough review of the 2023 season, including consultation with the NRL clubs, the RLPA and other stakeholders, and while there was a strong desire to keep changes to a minimum, this minor change will incentivise short kick-offs and drop-outs.
“This will strongly accompany the Commission’s direction to enhance the existing rules, leading to a faster, more free-flowing and unpredictable game,” NRL head of football Graham Annesley said.
In real terms, kick-off situations could look very different. With teams usually intent on hoofing the ball as far and/or high as possible to restart play, there was always a sense of things being reset and a chance for a deep breath following the scoring of points or after a break in play.
Now, even at the opening kick-off of each half, teams could well attempt to win possession back from the kick, very much like what commonly takes place in rugby union.
The sense of jeopardy achieved as teams run onto the field and the chance that both could have possession for the opening set of six tackles has, theoretically, always been there, yet in reality, not something teams have tried to achieve outside kick-offs in the final minutes when possession is most desperately required.
Similarly, the 20-metre drop-out has traditionally been motivated by clearing the ball as far as possible from a team’s goal line. In 2024, the subsequent scrum from a misplaced kick will see teams take a slightly different approach.
A scrum feed to the opposition 30 metres out and ten metres from touch is relatively predictable and manageable for modern defences, and perhaps even preferred to a strong run that returns the kick to near that point.
It is in the area of goal-line drop-outs that fans will have most familiarity with the new rule. Never before had more short drop-outs been attempted than during 2023 and a few teams actually managed to get a handle on doing it more successfully than others.
It became a clear tactic, yet one with automatic point scoring consequences for poor execution.
The lesser evil of having to defend a full set of six right on the try-line will be something teams are prepared to risk depending on the context and situation within an individual game.
It does seem odd that the NRL, in an attempt to add more contest and unpredictability, has focused on kick restarts and not the most obvious, traditional and poetic method of contesting the ball, the scrum.
The predictability the law makers are now looking to address was lost when the battle for the ball in scrummage was turned into a farce decades ago and eventually given up on, as well as by the removal of the right of the marker to strike out in the play the ball and win it back.
Those moments of contest helped convert the game into one of possession and field position, something that many found a little predictable.
While going down the rabbit-hole of ‘fixing’ scrums is something we are all a little tired of after years of conjecture, it seems the NRL is thinking of everything else it can to re-institute more contest into rugby league, essentially conceding that what was lost in scrums has in fact hurt the spectacle and spontaneity of the game.
The kick restart rule will certainly not be as readable, with circumstances certain to see teams execute in the same way they have in the past, as well as using the rule to attempt to take advantage in key moments with the element of surprise.
Hopefully the planned jeopardy is a positivity in 2024 and the coaches don’t attempt to exploit the new rule in cynical ways, as they seemingly always do.
Tony
Roar Guru
It was a pseudonym way back when
James 7
Roar Rookie
Ok must be my memory failing
Tony
Roar Guru
Not me
James 7
Roar Rookie
11 year player at St George Initials BB?
Tony
Roar Guru
You must be confusing me with somebody else
James 7
Roar Rookie
Tony Check your medication .. it's affecting your memory. Your Scanlons card has you down as a front rower. Wikipedia as second row.
Tony
Roar Guru
I don't think I ever went closer than 10 metres to a scrum
Tim Carter
Roar Pro
I remember having the backs of my hands ripped up by one guy, but it was in the early 2000's when the scrums weren't even being contested, so it would have been a bloodbath if he was doing it intentionally.
Cam
Roar Rookie
Same for me and the drop off is 90% scrum related. That said, the Reds have been very watchable to start this season. Les Kiss looks to be doing some good stuff in Brisbane.
woodart
Roar Rookie
if you are going to have any sort of a scrum,it must be contestable. check out rugby sevens scrum. very quick, but highly contestable.
criag
Roar Rookie
Another rule-change not thought through. Trying to force teams to play a certain way never works. It is easy enough anyway to get under a drop kick of 15-20 metre length. If a line drop out is that bad it doesn't make 10 metres, it deserves a penalty.
Hard Yards
Roar Rookie
I remember the scum as being the only reliable way to see if the Hooker needed to cut his fingernails.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
The last thing the game needs is to be sped up anymore.
Brett Allen
Roar Rookie
I’m not holding my breath, but if AFL umpires can throw the ball in the air somewhat evenly, I don’t see how the Badger can’t roll a ball into the actual tunnel somewhat straight.
Red Rob
Roar Rookie
Brett, if you can get a written undertaking from every current and future Roar poster that they will not complain about biased ref feeds against their team, you have my blessing to proceed. I wish you luck, in that regard :happy:
steveng
Roar Rookie
The shot kickoff in 75% of the times is used as a bludging act by the captain for his players to not chase a 30m to a 50m dropkick, as they rather tackle, its just baffling that teams do these short kickoffs and only manage to retain possession 25% of the times and lose games because of it, doesn't make sense to me. Scrums are just a waste of time and an utter joke, why have then at all, good idea is for the ref to put the ball into the scrum and have an even contest for the hooker to regain the ball, that is what the #12 in league was there for "as a hooker" hello and not just a dummy half :stoked: but it won't happen.
Succhi
Roar Rookie
The purpose of the scrum is to give the players a rest. No need to strike, no need to bind and no need to push. I love to see scrums become a contest, but unlikely I think.
Andrew01
Roar Rookie
You've over analysed and listened to a bunch of NRL spin. If a team puts a kick off out on the full - when the props for the receiving team are 50-60m away back on the dead ball line, the scrum restart is hardly going to be spontaneous. Here is the reason. Far fewer people get head injuries from tackles off the back of a scrum than they do from kick off or long drop out restarts. That's the reason for the change. Speeding a game up that doesn't need to be sped up anymore, is the spin.
Phil
Roar Rookie
Ditto, they were a blight on the game.
Tom G
Roar Rookie
Of all of the things I fail to get nostalgic over, league scrums top the list. Union scrums are often, often justifiably maligned as a source of mysterious adjudication, they are however a thing of great logic compared to the way league scrums were handled back in the day. They only contributed to higher penalty counts from strange decisions