What's new
The Front Row Forums

Register a free account today to become a member of the world's largest Rugby League discussion forum! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Rule tweaks incoming?

taste2taste

Juniors
Messages
1,864
Personally I think the only logical outcome is to ban contact entirely. No no, not touch football. That involves contact you barbarians!

the winner of all games shall be determined by the coin toss. Safest way to ensure no one gets hurt
Let's check back in on this comment in 100 yrs.

I'm betting you're bang on the money.
 

Valheru

Coach
Messages
17,821
So you think they would change rules to encourage the short dropout but stop the short kick-off? Makes sense. If anything I would think rule changes to encourage more short kick-offs would alleviate the problem of kick-off head injuries.
They could still have short kick offs, you would just have to nominate that is what you are doing. If it goes beyond the 30m line in that case it would be a penalty or tap on half way.
 

Valheru

Coach
Messages
17,821
I'm convinced contact sports won't exist in 50 years, a recent study found 12 yr old Gridiron players suffered an average 200 sub concussions a season, NFL players suffered between 1,000 to 1,500 per season, it's estimated league and Union players suffer even more.

Here's a few rules I can guarantee will happen within 5 years.

Copying the NFL, kick offs from the 40m, no running start allowed from the defence, if the kick off is caught in goal the offence will get a 7 tackle set starting from the 20m. This will drastically decrease the kick off collisions.

Smart mouth guards will be compulsory ( currently being trailed in Union )

Tackles bellow the nipples ( hehe)

Compulsory wearing of Halo headgear which reduces sub concussions by 60%

Defence only has to get back 5m

Players suffering concussions stand down 3 weeks as per recent recommendations by leading Neurologists.
Contact sports will exist, they will adjust, even if ultimately they have to get their legal teams involved and structure contracts in such a way that the players sign waivers on the basis that the best practices/equipment etc. of the day is being used.
 

taste2taste

Juniors
Messages
1,864
Contact sports will exist, they will adjust, even if ultimately they have to get their legal teams involved and structure contracts in such a way that the players sign waivers on the basis that the best practices/equipment etc. of the day is being used.
Ultimately the biggest concern is with kids being allowed to play, it's already very difficult to get mums to let thier kids play...but with research coming out, no mum will let thier kids play if she thinks he'll suffer 200 sub concussions in a season.

The stats are scary,
From brains studied, 99% of NFL players had CTE, 92% college and 25% high school.

America had about a 99.9999% drop in participation in boxing once it became known the long term effects, it could easily become the same with League/Union/Gridiron.

No kids playing = no one coming through to play professionally

Hopefully soon they'll find a cure to Tau build up in the brain ( also responsible for alzheimers ) and we can bring back the shoulder charge, fighting, coat hangers....etc
 
Last edited:

Danish

Referee
Messages
31,932
Contact sports will exist, they will adjust, even if ultimately they have to get their legal teams involved and structure contracts in such a way that the players sign waivers on the basis that the best practices/equipment etc. of the day is being used.

the softcock administered sports like league, gridiron, and rugby will no longer exist.

combat sports though will continue until the end of time
 

I Bleed Maroon

Referee
Messages
25,922
Absolutely ridiculous.

This is the shit we were worried about when the shoulder charge was banned. It's thin edge of the wedge stuff. So the kick off is in the crosshairs now, what's next after it gets turfed? Jumping to contest a bomb? Cause someone might take your legs out from under you and you land on your head? Sloth was on 360 tonight saying every kick off should be a short kick because the lotto over who gets possession is "exciting". I mean are you f**king kidding me with this?

That's what the media do: as soon as they pressure the NRL into a kneejerk response with all their alarmist chatter, they move on to the next thing to whine about to fill the air waves. The day will come when tackling itself will be on the chopping block, and then the miserable merkins will disappear into the shadows without a peep when the game is on life support.
 

Canard

Immortal
Messages
34,768
Personally I think the only logical outcome is to ban contact entirely. No no, not touch football. That involves contact you barbarians!

the winner of all games shall be determined by the coin toss. Safest way to ensure no one gets hurt
I think you're ignoring the risk of RSI.

It would be a virtual coin toss at best
 

Wizardman

First Grade
Messages
8,773
This is not a comment on whether we are going down the right track with the kick off issue.

But, I'll say this. Contact sport will never die. No doubt, more changes will come to give it a cosmetic appearance that it is safer. But, there is way too much money at stake to say that it will die.

I do find it amusing that while the rugby league media ls largely responsible for trying it eat itself, there are two other sports that let people hit each other in the head as much as they can in boxing and mma. Boxing continues to be a beast of a sport when it comes to main events but UFC is very much making ground in that same space. Both sports continue to operate with very minimal resistance from the media and absolutely no signs of its participants suing the organisations that conduct these events despite numerous fighters showing clear signs of cte when they have retired.

Rugby league will not die.
 

Chins get the wins

First Grade
Messages
5,699
This is not a comment on whether we are going down the right track with the kick off issue.

But, I'll say this. Contact sport will never die. No doubt, more changes will come to give it a cosmetic appearance that it is safer. But, there is way too much money at stake to say that it will die.

I do find it amusing that while the rugby league media ls largely responsible for trying it eat itself, there are two other sports that let people hit each other in the head as much as they can in boxing and mma. Boxing continues to be a beast of a sport when it comes to main events but UFC is very much making ground in that same space. Both sports continue to operate with very minimal resistance from the media and absolutely no signs of its participants suing the organisations that conduct these events despite numerous fighters showing clear signs of cte when they have retired.

Rugby league will not die.
With every decision that needs to be made into the future our CEO should be thinking "What would Dana White do"
 

Danish

Referee
Messages
31,932
I think you're ignoring the risk of RSI.

It would be a virtual coin toss at best

I’m basically a slave driver.

When you think about it, even the stress of losing might cause some psychological damage. Perhaps best we just all share the trophy every virtual coin disc season
 

JamesRustle

First Grade
Messages
6,860
Personally I think the only logical outcome is to ban contact entirely. No no, not touch football. That involves contact you barbarians!

the winner of all games shall be determined by the coin toss. Safest way to ensure no one gets hurt
Make it best of 1,001 so the contest is still played over an hour and a half. Home team has first toss, then it alternates by team, through the 17. Repeat until one team gets to 501, at which stage they can elect to go for a bonus point by getting to 600 before the 1,001th toss... no team has won.the premiership after conceding 600 in a regular season game.
 
Last edited:

T-Boon

Coach
Messages
15,421
That became obsolete in the 80s.

Imagine now with the fitness of today's players. Teams would be lucky to make 10m per set.
Keep it 10m but allow 3 markers and the markers don’t have to be square (can defend anywhere on their side of the advantage line).
 

Chimp

Bench
Messages
2,600
Absolutely ridiculous.

This is the shit we were worried about when the shoulder charge was banned. It's thin edge of the wedge stuff. So the kick off is in the crosshairs now, what's next after it gets turfed? Jumping to contest a bomb? Cause someone might take your legs out from under you and you land on your head? Sloth was on 360 tonight saying every kick off should be a short kick because the lotto over who gets possession is "exciting". I mean are you f**king kidding me with this?

That's what the media do: as soon as they pressure the NRL into a kneejerk response with all their alarmist chatter, they move on to the next thing to whine about to fill the air waves. The day will come when tackling itself will be on the chopping block, and then the miserable merkins will disappear into the shadows without a peep when the game is on life support.
Agree with this. If you ban the kick off, do you then get rid of penalty taps so a prop can’t have a run up, do you also ban long kicks in general play so that a fullback can’t steam it back at 100 mile an hour?
I posted the below elsewhere on my view of the only real fix (other than becoming a non-contact sport)….

For me, a version of the shoulder charge has to be allowed to prevent defensive concussions.
The safest way to stop momentum of a typical kick off run is to turn side on, tuck your arm in tight and brace for the impact. Having to complete a ‘wrap tackle’ puts your head and face directly in the contact zone - whether you go high or low. Go high, you’ll cop an elbow/forearm or a head clash (from the attacker or another defender), go low and you risk late footwork and having your head on the wrong side, or cop a hip or knee.
Similarly, look at when Tedesco got cleaned out by Kikau when Teddy was rushing across to try get Kikau in tough - simple physics suggests the only way he could ever have enough momentum/power to put Kikau in touch and not get knocked out himself would have been to lead with the shoulder.
But to re-introduce leading with the shoulder/bracing for contact with the shoulder, the rules would have to be made in a way that any risk of high contact is minimised, and anyone going high is hung, drawn and quartered at disciplinary. They’d probably also need to find a way of stopping the forecful/blindside shoulder charges that cause whiplash and can go very wrong if contact is also high.
 
Messages
243
If they ban contact sports it’ll do more bad then good, those kids that in the past had something to work toward would be on the streets and more no hopers would develop.
 
Top