It comes down to this, if shoulder charges are even close to your favourite thing about rugby league, you're not a real fan. With the shoulder charge in or out, it so far down the list of reasons I watch the game that I haven't spent 2 minutes thinking about it since it got banned.
This is the greatest game of all, it is still the greatest game of all even without shoulder charges.
It's the greatest game of all without the shoulder charges. But we shouldn't be complacent. We could take lots from the game and the game would still be League, but the impact of the change is still big.
I think you're criminally underestimating the pull of big hits to the neutral observer. I wouldn't be here now if not for the attraction of biffs and big hits. I won't talk about fans because fans get over it, nobody likes the steady decline of all-in brawls, but the fan loves the game too much to walk away from it. However...
As a late bloomer(I only was introduced to and started watching League in my late teens) I think some of you have far too high an opinion of the sport - and I say that as someone who's watched several games a week for the last, probably 6 years... But we need to be realistic here.
Rugby League, like American football, is a sport for the fan, especially the hardcore fan. If you're raised on the sport you can't see it, because you know the sport and know how awesome it is, just like American football fans, but I have to tell you... It's(League) not something that, at its core, is awe-inspiring for a neutral, it just isn't mate. The aspect of the game that neutral observers are drawn to is the undeniable physicality, the macho-nature of the sport. Newcomers often watch the sport for that, and they grow to love everything else in the process. Whether you think it(shoulder charges) matters or not, it does to the uninitiated - and we've just lost a big part of that.
Some of you won't like to here this, but to the first time viewer Rugby League isn't a particularly easy sport to watch, even compared to Union it can be tedious. Trust me when I say it can be slow, repetitive and uninspiring. More than you'd care to acknowledge, it's the physicality and violence, not the football skill, that hooks new people in.
From an expansion and global popularity point of view, I really worry that changes like this will set us back significantly. I've talked a lot of shit in this thread and I talk a lot of shit generally, but I'm honestly concerned what the implications of this ban will be, if it's to be enforced properly. Not to mention future changes to the game that could be coming with player safety in mind.
I expect I'll be bagged for this as most here were raised on League, but to the first time viewer, Rugby League now has a lot less to offer. I say that because skill and all the little nuances that make League a marvelous code, they're not easily recognised by first time viewers, they're learned.
From here on out, the sport of League is fishing without much in the way of bait. That's just my opinion though
