Give the little guys a chance - Gould

[Perrymatta]

Great article I'd love to see it trialed.

 

[nqboy]

I can't get it straight in my head but I am thinking how this rule could be exploited or how it could be affected by injuries, leaving teams one man, or even more, short.

I guess we won't know for sure until we try it.

 

[Kilkenny]

Love him or hate him you have to acknoweldge he is arguably the most knowledgeable person in the game. Terrific article and he's right on the money for mine.

 

[lucablight]

shutup gus

no u

 

[Waitakere Warrior Fan]

It doesn't sound a bad idea, but it would need some tweaking before actually being put into practice. It would seem like there needs to be some dispensation for injuries since otherwise in-game injuries would potentially be an even bigger liability than they already are. For example an injury late in the game once your bench is filled with players who can't come back would leave you a man down, or a couple of early backline injuries would greatly hamper your interchanges if the injured players couldn't come back. And then if you do have some kind of dispensation for injuries you start having issues over just who decides a player is injured and not just faking it to essentially buy an interchange for his team.

 

[petetheileet]

keep it as is, i dont see any dramas

 

[Phil McGrawhan]

I usually don't listen to or read what gus says ,but since he got away ftrom the roosters he seems to speak out for the betterment of the game...not some agenda that would benefit his club.
He has some very good ideas,& any idea that would open up our defence orientated game(nrl wrestling),& produce a quicker exciting game is worth looking at.

 

[yosh64]

I usually don't listen to or read what gus says ,but since he got away ftrom the roosters he seems to speak out for the betterment of the game...not some agenda that would benefit his club.
He has some very good ideas,& any idea that would open up our defence orientated game(nrl wrestling),& produce a quicker exciting game is worth looking at.

Agreed. I usually hate the way gould goes about putting ideas into the public forum as its normally got alot of whinging and blame attached to it. But he does seem to genuinely care about league.

This idea seems to have merit and i fully support the idea of trialling it (with dispensation for injuries) later in the year as he suggested. At the moment it seems good on paper, so give it a go and then decide once we know the effects of the change. Or at least do it in the trials or for premier league/jim beam cup.

 

[magpie_man]

I love this idea.
The way I work it out, if a coach stacks his bench with props he can only really do 6 interchanges:

Interchange 1. #8 off, #14 on
Interchange 2. #10 off, #15 on
Interchange 3. #14 off (shower), #16 on
Interchange 4. #15 off (shower), #17 on
Interchange 5. #16 off (shower), #8 on
Interchange 6. #17 off (shower), #10 on

 

[Dogs Of War]

Why not just reduce the amount of interchanges available. It will have the same effect at the end of the day. Something like 8 should do, which still allows some flexibility but reduces the troubles that can come from someone on the sideline getting it all wrong on who has been off the field already.

 

[imasharkie]

I also am not a Gould fan so being an elder statesman I like this idea of his and certainly needs a trial.

also fix up the scrums and bring them to back to the way they were.

 

[RainMan]

Why not just reduce the amount of interchanges available. It will have the same effect at the end of the day. Something like 8 should do, which still allows some flexibility but reduces the troubles that can come from someone on the sideline getting it all wrong on who has been off the field already.

I agree, I would prefer 6. Interchange needs to be kept simple.