Bring Back Our Game.

[Old Timer]

I'd like to see refs get back to refereeing the games, rather than "manage" it as they do these days. None of this telling blokes they're offside, or to stay in a scrum or they can challenge a ruling. If they're offside, penalise them. And absolutely no calling players (other than the captain) by their name. f**k me, some young guy makes his debut and the ref knows who he is! It's clearly part of their preparation. Nothing wrong with Blue 7 or Red 12.

Excellent summation re interaction between refs and players

Old saying but true “ familiarity breeds contempt”

Your statement re refs managing the game is hitting the nail right on the head.

Ref the game properly enforcing all the rules and stop looking for the extra input from the bunker to clarify something that needs no clarifying.

The situation now is like having a baby sitter that’s constantly ringing the parents while they are out asking them what to do.

 

[Gareth67]

And now Trent Robinson has read my post and wants the players to change their tackling style to reduce head highs. Well yeah the coaches created the wrestling shit and the NRLsped up the game so players have those quick reflex actions where players heads are being dislodged. Players are bigger coming at the defence quicker so the shoulder charge is the way to take them down.
Let's slow the game down get those lovely under the ribs tackle back (yes just like Rava) and the around the legs tackles as well. Also to many players tackling one man has to stop. That's what hurt Kurt Mann and other leg injuries.

“ Trent Robinson has read your post “ - your in big trouble buddy , he will be off to the judiciary about you !

But everything you have said are indeed the problems with today’s game . They have taken away the main ingredients that made our game so great with the constant changes to the rules .

I believe that one could judge just how more enjoyable rugby league was in those days simply by the enormous crowds in attendance at the matches - they were huge compared to today .

There must be a lesson in there somewhere for the big boys at NRL headquarters ,if only there eyes could see clearly.

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

The problem with the five metre rule now would be just running from dummy half.
There is too much wrestle & gang tackling in today's game & the defence would be set which would only allow one out or dummy half runs.

Theres lots of things that piss me off with the game as it stands today (to many to list and its getting late) but one of the biggest is when the ref is standing back the correct metres with the defending team and you can clearly see players well in front of him and he fails to act.....you can count on one hand the amount of times the defending team is back the required distance......sure I get it would be difficult for a ref to see everyone is on side.....but theres blokes standing alongside him thats a metre or more in front.....and please dont tell me thats what the 6 again is for because most times it goes unnoticed

 

[Blood Shot Eyes]

Sorry and one other that is getting used more and more is this business of the defending team with their hands on the ball when the attacking team is trying to play the ball.....ughhh my pet hate

 

[Forbes Creek Dragons]

The other night I watched a footy match Manly v East's from Andrew Voss Classic Replays won 38 to 12 by Manly. They played with a leather ball the players especially Manly showed real skill with speed to burn and blew East's of the park.
My point this game was fast there were some big men with skills and seen one player KO himself when he collided with the back of a Manly player.
There were none of that six again crap and the ref looked to keep a good 10m for defensive team (think it was the 10m rule).
The game we see now is huge forwards colliding at speed and small blokes (halves and hookers) defending the middle and players either getting concussed in the tackle or defenders using the shoulder charge to stop the momentum.
One solution now that concussion is on the rise and won't go away is reduce the size of the players or reduce the distance between the teams. The five metre rule?

How would you reduce the size of players? I feel this six again business is trying to weed out the bigger players tbh. I like speeding up the game and like enabling smaller more exciting players to thrive but my issue is it is just too grey to police fairly.

 

[Gareth67]

How many players nowadays go in to tackle their opponents low ?
Not many Gareth I suppose because they want to stop any second phase passes but if you check this Youtube clip, they did a lot of low tackles then.

A real grass-gutter from Poppa Clay on Kel O’Shea , instead of his usual ball and all style . Just go to prove that he wasn’t just a pretty face , he had style also !

Enjoyable to watch David , however yes as you have said , they tackled low in those years to stop their opponents from making any more yardage , very simple . How many times did your coach screw his face up and grimace whilst speaking those immortal words “ Take their legs from under them - they can’t run without legs you know ! “ .

Part and parcel of what was drummed into every youngster playing junior footy in those days , the coach may not had known much else about coaching , but when those words came out of his mouth it made you think that he knew what he was talking about .

 

[Ted bartolo]

How would you reduce the size of players? I feel this six again business is trying to weed out the bigger players tbh. I like speeding up the game and like enabling smaller more exciting players to thrive but my issue is it is just too grey to police fairly.

Six again is basicly a lucky dip letting referees control the game..corruption?

 

[2010Dragons]

The game has changed into a orchestrated WORLD WRESTLING phoney fight. The referees and match officials are determining how the game is going play out.
Referees are NOT adjudicating the rules but only warning players they are cheating.
The broadcaster FOXTEL and nine decided which team plays when AND WHO WINS for the best ratings.
Almost every commentator has links to a FAVOURITE club.
But not 1 commentator has links to the Dragons. Hence why we get treated badly.
We use to have GAZ on Foxtel but he doesn’t work their anymore.
Referees favour the favourite clubs too.

The whole footy game is no longer a fair game but a corrupt game show.

 

[Gareth67]

The game has changed into a orchestrated WORLD WRESTLING phoney fight. The referees and match officials are determining how the game is going play out.
Referees are NOT adjudicating the rules but only warning players they are cheating.
The broadcaster FOXTEL and nine decided which team plays when AND WHO WINS for the best ratings.
Almost every commentator has links to a FAVOURITE club.
But not 1 commentator has links to the Dragons. Hence why we get treated badly.
We use to have GAZ on Foxtel but he doesn’t work their anymore.
Referees favour the favourite clubs too.

The whole footy game is no longer a fair game but a corrupt game show.

2010 , Fairly close to the mark unfortunately .

 

[possm]

How many players nowadays go in to tackle their opponents low ?
Not many Gareth I suppose because they want to stop any second phase passes but if you check this Youtube clip, they did a lot of low tackles then.

1961, how good are they? For me that's rugby league, that is the type of play and venue I grew up to know and love.

 

[boardlumps62]

Well

How would you reduce the size of players? I feel this six again business is trying to weed out the bigger players tbh. I like speeding up the game and like enabling smaller more exciting players to thrive but my issue is it is just too grey to police fairly.

Put them on diets? Don't really know but Matt Lodge is one that is to slow for this game according to Broncos and they won't to get rid of him. And yes the smaller man was supposed to thrive but not seeing a lot of that they are getting bashed.

 

[Dragon David]

Theres lots of things that piss me off with the game as it stands today (to many to list and its getting late) but one of the biggest is when the ref is standing back the correct metres with the defending team and you can clearly see players well in front of him and he fails to act.....you can count on one hand the amount of times the defending team is back the required distance......sure I get it would be difficult for a ref to see everyone is on side.....but theres blokes standing alongside him thats a metre or more in front.....and please dont tell me thats what the 6 again is for because most times it goes unnoticed

Can't the linesmen/women signal the ref? Surely they can do more than run up and down the sideline with their flags flapping in the wind?

 

[Dragon David]

1961, how good are they? For me that's rugby league, that is the type of play and venue I grew up to know and love.

Beautiful to watch. Loved our wingers. Our halves, centres, forwards, fullback were fantastic. They were the days Possm when big crowds came out to watch as there was no TV coverage or not live coverage in those days. Darcy Lawler the ref was fair dinkumly fair with all teams and there were no bloody 6 agains!

If only!

 

[FlameThrower]

The game has changed into a orchestrated WORLD WRESTLING phoney fight. The referees and match officials are determining how the game is going play out.
Referees are NOT adjudicating the rules but only warning players they are cheating.
The broadcaster FOXTEL and nine decided which team plays when AND WHO WINS for the best ratings.
Almost every commentator has links to a FAVOURITE club.
But not 1 commentator has links to the Dragons. Hence why we get treated badly.
We use to have GAZ on Foxtel but he doesn’t work their anymore.
Referees favour the favourite clubs too.

The whole footy game is no longer a fair game but a corrupt game show.

Anyone with high level involvement such board membership and paid employ at club, should not be commentating on that game. Surely it’s not that hard ...or have all of these clowns got their sticky fingers into so a many pies that there will be nobody left to commentate....

 

[Gareth67]

A number of members have made the point that our game has become the plaything of the tele. networks and they are spot on . It seems that just about every change to the rules of the game are supposedly to make rugby league a greater spectacle .

They , along with the ever eager to please NRL bigwigs have changed the game to such an extent that it is a mere shadow of what it once was .

As a result not as much enjoyment nowadays compared to the years before the NRL took the huge sums from the stations in a money grab and at the same time selling their souls to their new pay masters , so now the supporter is left from season to season awaiting for the next changes to the game that come from some television ratings executive .

 

[Dragonslayer]

A number of members have made the point that our game has become the plaything of the tele. networks and they are spot on . It seems that just about every change to the rules are supposedly to make rugby league a greater spectacle .

They , along with the ever eager to please NRL bigwigs have changed the game to such an extent that it is a mere shadow of what it once was .

As a result not as much enjoyment nowadays compared to the years before the NRL took the huge sums from the stations in a money grab and at the same time selling their souls to their new pay masters , so now the supporter is left from season to season awaiting for the next changes to the game that come from some television ratings executive .

The losely put evolution of the game has coincided with the evolution of Television.
Watching a game from the comfort of home (no traffic hassles, no queues, no freezing your but off on a miserable Thursday night) has become the preferred viewing method. If yoir team is getting soundly beaten, you can just switch off and do something else.

I think the biggest mistake the NRL has made, particularly in recent times, is not so much the rule changes (dont get me wrong, they are a big factor) but the notion of a 'day/afternoon/evening at the football. The fact nowadays, on most occassions, you just get 1 game. And that game is approximately 100 mins ie 1hr 40mins (including half time). If your teams getting a flogging then probsbly some people leave before that.
Some may argue that 20/20 cricket is a short and quick in and out spectacle, and that is true.

I'd like to see the return of a pre-game ie JF or KOE Cup before every 1st grade game. Give the supporters a 3hr+ value for their money. We have this on Sunday when we take on the Tigers with KOE Cup before 1st grade. It will be interesting to see if crowd #'s are up on Sunday compared to a single game day.

 

[Old Timer]

If anyone cares to have a look at highlight reals of

S. Morris
S. Mortimer
P. Blake
J. Gibbs

One would have to question what was so wrong with the game that they changed the rules and this is only a quick look at a few halfbacks some of who were multi skilled of course.

If we start looking at fullbacks, back rowers, props and hookers of that same era you will find plenty of them lit up the field with their speed and skills and then of course we haven't even delved into the likes of ET, Sludge, Renouf, Blacklock, Walford, Chariots, Fergo etc.

The game become unruly and they started tinkering with the rules because the f**king refs stopped policing the very basics of the game partially due to the ever increasing professionalism and speed of the game (the refs remained fairly amateurish in comparison to players) which is what has ultimately created the bunker and the ever ongoing analysis by the wankers on the TV.

So in the end the media got what it wanted namely to be able to directly influence the game and the loyal fans got SFA not to mention the punishment dished out to us by having to put up brain dead's Braith, Lozza, Blocker and the like.

The refs to day are far fitter and fully professional so if they took these refs and changed the rules back with the simple instructions to police the rules fairly and to have no familiarity with the players we would end up with a far better game than what we are getting now.

 

[boardlumps62]

The losely put evolution of the game has coincided with the evolution of Television.
Watching a game from the comfort of home (no traffic hassles, no queues, no freezing your but off on a miserable Thursday night) has become the preferred viewing method. If yoir team is getting soundly beaten, you can just switch off and do something else.

I think the biggest mistake the NRL has made, particularly in recent times, is not so much the rule changes (dont get me wrong, they are a big factor) but the notion of a 'day/afternoon/evening at the football. The fact nowadays, on most occassions, you just get 1 game. And that game is approximately 100 mins ie 1hr 40mins (including half time). If your teams getting a flogging then probsbly some people leave before that.
Some may argue that 20/20 cricket is a short and quick in and out spectacle, and that is true.

I'd like to see the return of a pre-game ie JF or KOE Cup before every 1st grade game. Give the supporters a 3hr+ value for their money. We have this on Sunday when we take on the Tigers with KOE Cup before 1st grade. It will be interesting to see if crowd #'s are up on Sunday compared to a single game day.

Ahh but the cost to hire and run the venue for 1 game is far cheaper than having the three grades. The networks don't care about Reggie's and Under 21/23 etc.

 

[Dragon David]

If anyone cares to have a look at highlight reals of

S. Morris
S. Mortimer
P. Blake
J. Gibbs

One would have to question what was so wrong with the game that they changed the rules and this is only a quick look at a few halfbacks some of who were multi skilled of course.

If we start looking at fullbacks, back rowers, props and hookers of that same era you will find plenty of them lit up the field with their speed and skills and then of course we haven't even delved into the likes of ET, Sludge, Renouf, Blacklock, Walford, Chariots, Fergo etc.

The game become unruly and they started tinkering with the rules because the f**king refs stopped policing the very basics of the game partially due to the ever increasing professionalism and speed of the game (the refs remained fairly amateurish in comparison to players) which is what has ultimately created the bunker and the ever ongoing analysis by the wankers on the TV.

So in the end the media got what it wanted namely to be able to directly influence the game and the loyal fans got SFA not to mention the punishment dished out to us by having to put up brain dead's Braith, Lozza, Blocker and the like.

The refs to day are far fitter and fully professional so if they took these refs and changed the rules back with the simple instructions to police the rules fairly and to have no familiarity with the players we would end up with a far better game than what we are getting now.

Well said O/T.

 

[Gareth67]

DRAGONSLAYER and O.T. - as Dragondavid has already said - good posts gentleman , I must confess there have been times when I have changed the channel whilst the Dragons are not Plato their ability - as you say Dragonslayer so much more convenient .

And yes it would be a shot in the arm for another match/s being played before the main event , value for one’s dollar.

O.T’s comment about the skills off the great half’s and wingers was spot on , those players could bring the crowd to their feet with their class and were proven match winners

Indeed that was what made the game such a great spectacle , it was fast , their was skill in abundance and the players themselves were able to display there wares as the refs were firm and consistent with their rulings . Every one knew who was No.1 on that field and it was not the players , but the man dressed in white , with the whistle hanging around his shoulders .

Nor did he require the services of another ref on the field to do the job , as he knew his trade , plus the linesmen actually had tongues in their head then , not like the store mannequins that they have today .

Finally the other aspect that is no longer present in rugby league today is the good old fashioned sportsmanship , it’s gone the way of the doe-doe bird , in its place we now have most unsavory conduct of players attempting to milk penalties in what ever way they can - most unsportsmanlike.

Who could ever forget that image of the vanquished Arthur Summons with his hand around the victorious Norm Proven , both covered in mud after the ‘63 grand final . Today you would have the vanquished attempting to throttle the life out of the victor with a ‘ chicken-wing ‘ - don’t laugh , it would make great viewing , can you image the television audience for the next episode ? ?