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Joined March 2013
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The Dr loves his NRL, but he is a sports tragic at heart. Expect thoughts on Cricket, Golf and Tennis to round out a general NRL-based theme. Catch the blog at www.drnrl.wordpress.com. Or follow me on twitter @dr_nrl
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Last weekend's AFL Indigenous Round was especially notable for the build up. It was promoted everywhere as an honour and recognition of the Indigenous…
Sitting peacefully atop the NRL management pyramid, connected to his apprentice CEOs with a mixture of dotted and solid reporting lines, the ‘real’ CEO…
The Dr hit a screamer into the 1st last week. Unfortunately, it rolled far enough into the zone of discomfort to almost guarantee a…
Michael Hagan is absolutely correct. Enough of the glorified half-time-style entertainment known as golden point. Golden Point – What’s The Point? Two teams play…
My word this is becoming tiresome. The meeting of the NRL Competition Committee yesterday opened the window even further into how slow-moving and oblivious…
David Smith has been labelled many things since he began his tenure as NRL CEO. The most recent by respected rugby league journalists and…
Coffs Harbour’s BCU International Stadium is promoted as being a “first class sporting facility hosting local, regional, national and international sporting events.” The City…
The Rugby League representative season kicked off last night with two committed, gallant teams pitted against each other. While the first half was a…
Few things get the Dr's heart pumping faster than a heaving rugby league crowd: the swearing, the grannies knitting beanies (then swearing), the pungent…
Every year NSW fans look jealously over the border and lament Queensland's rich vein of halves talent. And it's one of the reasons they…
The idea that NRL teams must be rationalised within the greater Sydney basin, while the competition is expanded nationally has become a topic of…
Why does refereeing never seem to improve? Maybe it's like golf, where it seems almost impossible to learn and you repeat the same errors…
The Dr is growing increasingly fond of this paragraph, published before the 2013 season: "Outlawing the shoulder charge is a bad decision. The sentiment…
We are lucky enough to have Australian cricket coach Mickey Arthur* in the Dr's virtual surgery this morning to share his thoughts on team…
Right on JayBob, advantage is when there actually is an advantage to exploit.
Gathering the ball and running it past the infringement area, or with potential to do so on the next tackle, would qualifiy as advantage.
Getting tackled 10m back toward your own goal line with a set defence in front of you (partly because the flop tackle might be regarded as ‘dominant’ or as a ‘submission’) should not.
And that’s it, really. How hard can it be? Excrutiatingly difficult, apparently … it’s time referees, like cab drivers, were required to understand hat they are actually doing!
I was listening to Fire Up! on 94.5 this morning (which I highly recommend), and HG said it himself – It’s ignorance that makes Rugby League great!. It is the perfect position from which to start a conversation about Rugby League!
We love our League, but we also recognise it is not officiated by he sharpest minds out there.
Five Friday footy follies (and a headbutt to Billy Slater's foot)
No Mushi, the point I’m making is that the Storm dropped the ball, which went over 10m forward.
The Bulldogs dropped onto the ball on ‘zero tackle’, but were on the back foot given they had to get back behind the ball, and it took a few tackles to get back to where the infringement occurred.
So, there was no advantage to them fom the Storm knock-on, and therefore a scrum should have been set where the knock-on occurred.
Hope that’s clearer mate.
Five Friday footy follies (and a headbutt to Billy Slater's foot)
I’m not a Slater fan, as noted repeatedly. Though I’m pretty sure he wasn’t using The Force when he caught the ball. That’s what the replay showed too – catch first, eyes up after. Don’t be fooled by super slo-mo. This didn’t take seconds to unfold … it was far less.
And no, you’re not defenceless. Raising the knee (or turning side on to a degree) protects a catcher, as do the rules of the game incidentally.
Thanks for your comments.
Five Friday footy follies (and a headbutt to Billy Slater's foot)
Couldn’t agree more.
Also, I’m all for cross pollinating. Taking the best of the best rules and management practices from other codes and sports is essential to ‘proactively’ grow and improve the game.
As noted in the blog, time offs are one (a la AFL).
Further, if a ball is kicked dead in goal, play should resume from where it was kicked (a la Rugby).
But at the end of the day, you can only help those that want to help themselves, which is why my motto will always be ‘Rugby League succeeds despite itself’. The product is too enduring for management to destroy, which is lucky for us!
I would also like to see a grubber kick grounded in-goal restart at the 22m line, just like a catch. Use it or lose it.
Check out my blog. It’s all there.
Five Friday footy follies (and a headbutt to Billy Slater's foot)
He was very reckless last week and should have been dressed in a suit last night as a result, and not his playing clobber. Last night his eyeswere on the ball.
As much as seems to get away with, this incident doesn’t concern me so much. Klemmer wasn’t going for the ball and should have waited until Billy landed. Unless he copped a roundhouse at that point, he would’ve been able to simply flop on top of him a la Sam Thaiday.
Next time Billy slide tackles someone’s face as they try to score we’ll have another discussion, and I’ll have the pitchforks ready.
Five Friday footy follies (and a headbutt to Billy Slater's foot)
Belly flopping on a ball doesn’t strike me as a legitimate way to ground a ball. I agree. It doesn’t scream ‘control’ to me.
Five Friday footy follies (and a headbutt to Billy Slater's foot)
The concussion sub is a terrific idea. Concussion is just too serious to put into the same category as a sprained ankle. Time has moved on. The sub is difficult to ‘game’ because a player replaced in this fashion should automatically stand down the week after without question. This makes the decision to invoke the concussion replacement a 2-week decision.
drnrl.wordpress.com has been a vocal critic of the NRL’s approach to concussion, along with major issues such as obstruction (which I’m glad to see has bowed to common sense) and shoulder charges.
It’s high time the NRL began leading, rather than following (if it even gets that far).
Dr NRL
It's time for the NRL to allow a concussion sub