Gone missing: 75 tries

[HowHigh]

Bill Harrigan adjusted the rules to suit the Dragons style of play after his and Archer's bias towards them became a little bit too obvious.

:lol::lol::lol: f**k you're an idiot lol

blame the second half of the ladder, all the bad teams fighting it out for the spoon. still have my money on roosters tho. if pearce gets injured they might sneak through and make the 8 again.

 

[kurt faulk]

I dont know why but I am definately watching less games and taking less interest...

This may explain it

i've been watching more games this season. maybe it's because there are less touch fotball type tries from the quick play the balls, teams have to earn their tries.

it makes it more of a contest.

maybe people who like lots of scoring should watch basketball, or the afl.

.

 

[attila_the_gorilla]

I was gonna start a similar whinging thread. Might as well add my thoughts here. Personally I'm not so fussed about the lack of tries, what I'm most disappointed with is the lack of attention to detail and the number of unforced errors. Too many games have been absolute cripple fights, both teams trying to win it for the opposition. I actually enjoy tight, tough defensive footy, but can't stand poor ball control and lack of attetion to detail.

It is true though, that there is not much creativity in the game, but like it's been mentioned, quick play-the-balls in the past made creativity redundant. With the slower speed of the ruck, here will need to be creative and quality plays to break the line, this can only be a good thing.

It's like the 10 metre rule, it really dumbed the game down when it was introduced. One-out hitups, dummy half running, especially when coupled with quick play-the balls. 50 metres a set, a kick, no risk taken.

 

[Gaba]

sides have woken up to the fact there are teams who cant score points when thier one man attack isnt there or is quiet during the game, like the roosters,raiders

Roosters are the most predictable side this year, no carney no attack

last year roosters were made to look better by the lack of defence from the majority of other teams.

 

[Danish]

Personally I think defence has improved markedly this year from last.

Has any team scored 50 this year? I feel like by this round last year there were 6-8 50 point thrashings which just dont happen anymore.

 

[ANTiLAG]

sides have woken up to the fact there are teams who cant score points when thier one man attack isnt there or is quiet during the game, like the roosters,raiders

Roosters are the most predictable side this year, no carney no attack

last year roosters were made to look better by the lack of defence from the majority of other teams.

lets not forget that Mitchell Pearce is sh!t and other coaches are lacking game plans.

 

[Moffo]

Too many errors and too much wwe in the tackles. How is the penalty count vs last year? The ruck is ruining the game

Lots of wet games doesn't help either

The other thing is that I think the nrl front loaded the season too much. A lot of the high profile matches were in rounds 1-5 so now a lot of the games are a bit meh...

 

[Poupou Escobar]

Then you clearly cannot enjoy a good contest. Parra v Dragons was one of the best this year. There mustn't have been enough errors or missed tackles.

It was a good contest but it was f**kawful dull as a spectatcle.

It looked like what it was - two grindy teams without a clue about how to break the opposition's line. No surprise all four tries came from kicks.

 

[Stagger Lee]

It was a good contest but it was f**kawful dull as a spectatcle.

It looked like what it was - two grindy teams without a clue about how to break the opposition's line. No surprise all four tries came from kicks.

Strewth that is rough but there is no accounting for taste or a lack of it.

But I guess some of us enjoy a bottle of penfolds grange and some like yourself enjoy a cask wine.

:roll:

 

[bottle]

It was a good contest but it was f**kawful dull as a spectatcle.
It looked like what it was - two grindy teams without a clue about how to break the opposition's line. No surprise all four tries came from kicks.

Yeah well that's called good defense, it's part of the game if a team is any good. Some don't get it.
On the point in question, cbf looking it up but how would the penalty counts for the two time periods compare? Someone already mentioned the fact that last year markers were penalised for not being square to the point of idiocy. They've corrected that and thus the attacking side gets less cheap metres for this. Also eliminating stepping sideways to gain this advantage, and Sam Perrett no longer allowed to walk 10 metres off the mark. In other words some reward for the defensive team. As mentioned, it's part of the game and deserves it's own reward so the question is where to draw the balance?
I would suggest that the people who aren't happy with it are the people whose teams aren't going that hot. It's all rosy when your team is doing ok. Then there are the imbeciles who claim it's designed to favour a particular team alone. The rules apply to every team equally, and each team has a coaching staff whose job it is to get them prepared for the contest. Some are just shit at it.

 

[bluey]

There is a clear lack of creativity in the game at the moment. This is what makes the game boring teams far to concerned with completion rates rather then what they do when they actually have possession of the football.

This makes the good games arm wrestles and the bad games tedious because the mistakes are just from rucking the ball out rather then enterprising play.

The game is far far too structured the policing of the rucks is fine. The problem is certain teams have had a policy of the past 3-4 years of just taking 5 hit ups and kicking the ball. Because the play the ball was so fast teams didn't really have to be creative.

Now the game has slowed down it will take more creativity or a perfect structure to break opposition teams down.

I have been watching the game for 25 years and from 2008 onwards has been the worst period of football going. Teams are too scared to take chances which leads to a boring game.

there are three great structured teams in the NRL and there are 2-3 entertaining teams. The rest are just terrible they have no creativity they just think taking 5 hit ups and kicking the ball is perfectly acceptable.

This is really the main problem there is a huge lack of talent in the game

There is a huge lack of talent in the halves

20 years ago

1992

Halfbacks

1. Stuart
2. Langer
3. Alexander
4. Sterling
5. Toovey
6. Taylor
7. Simon
8. Blake
9. Goldthorpe
10. Freeman

All of these halfbacks played at a state of origin level or higher in there careers.

You also have

11. Coleman (good club player for over a decade)
12. Healey (good club player for over a decade)
13. Polla-Mounter ( A good club player for a decade)
14. Rodwell ( rookie of the year that year )

The only two teams who had below average halfbacks were North Sydney who had Jason Martin who was the rookie of the year in 1990. Also Balmain who had Brian Smith who was a Rugby Union international and once played city country.

Only Gold Coast had a poor halfback in Ali Davys or Jason Twist.


There is only one really poor halfback out of all of these.

Five Eigths

1. Lewis
2. Kenny
3. Daley
4. Walters
5. Lamb
6. Lyons
7. Dymock
8. Florimo
9. Hagan
10. Carter

All of these players played state of origin or above in there career.

The rest

Speechley (Good club player for a decade)
Coyne ( He was okay )
Trindall ( Hugely talented a good club player for a decade)
Neil ( Good club player for a decade or so)
Robinson ( Rookie of the year 1991)
Hall ( good club player for a decade)


Our halves nowadays are nowhere near as good nowhere near the depth. Even 10 years ago there was so much more talent.

This is why there are fewer tries the players are not as creative or talented or allowed to express the talent they have.

That should be posted on the doors to the NRL and clubs.
All these rule changes have created this.

 

[Poupou Escobar]

I would suggest that the people who aren't happy with it are the people whose teams aren't going that hot.

You could also say the only people who are happy with it are the people whose teams are doing well.

It's all rosy when your team is doing ok.

See above.

Then there are the imbeciles who claim it's designed to favour a particular team alone. The rules apply to every team equally, and each team has a coaching staff whose job it is to get them prepared for the contest. Some are just shit at it.

I don't think it's designed to favour a particular team but sometimes, through sheer dumb luck, a rule/interpretation change favours clubs with a certain combination of players and hurts others.

Look at the Roosters in '02. I remember it vividly because my own team had a small, fast forward pack that was made effectively redundant by that rule change. It took us 3 years to rebuild from it.

 

[Iafeta]

The ruck is terribly slow now. You can't get a roll on. There's a lot of grappling coming back into the game. Last nights Roosters/Warriors game was littered with annoying wrestling tactics.

As far as dummy half running goes, it is boring. But often it will drag defenders in and if the halfback is smart open up opportunities to spread it wide later in the set. I dare say the percentage of tries coming from kicks over the past 10 years has increased too. And I put that down to the slow ruck, its harder to create momentum through a set so it seems to me most teams are setting up camp in the 20, working to a point on the field and no further, and then seeing if their halfback can plot a bomb onto the try line for some big winger to jump up for. Aside from Feleti Mateo's instinctive ball play, its basically the Warriors only tactic as an example.

I also think its partially coaching. Everyone looks at Wayne Bennett's style and thinks, well, if I make it nice and conservative, reduce some errors, we'll be ok. I don't think thats the case with Bennett's coaching at all. They DO offload a lot when momentum is created. They DO run sweeping plays to a wide shift when they have a quick ruck. In between times they'll do SFA, but they still have those options to exploit opportunities.

 

[bottle]

I also think its partially coaching. Everyone looks at Wayne Bennett's style and thinks, well, if I make it nice and conservative, reduce some errors, we'll be ok. I don't think thats the case with Bennett's coaching at all. They DO offload a lot when momentum is created. They DO run sweeping plays to a wide shift when they have a quick ruck. In between times they'll do SFA, but they still have those options to exploit opportunities.

You're so right it's scary. It's dumbfounding how many fans only see what they want to see (boring blah blah blah). Are the coaches this stupid too?

 

[Slackboy72]

I have to say that apart from lol@50uffs a lot of teams defence has stepped up.
Added to that the general dearth of playmakers means that a lot of teams are having trouble getting across the line.

 

[no name]

Said the same in the gameplans thread, need less interchange.
Players are bashing the shit out of each other.

 

[russ13]

If 12 rounds have been played then that is 96 games. If there are 75 tries less than last year then that is less one per game.

 

[God-King Dean]

Tries, shmies.

 

[beave]

More trys don't mean better games...........

Seriously, the NRL can't win. You have games with shitloads of points scored and everyone whinges that the players are soft and can't defend 'like the old days' and then the defence gets a hell of a lot better people whinge that the aren't creative enough........... f**k me.

 

[DecoyRunner]

At one stage on Friday night the Broncos were getting four and five players into every tackle because they know the refs will allow them more time to get off him. Four guys making a tackle and no one takes the legs cause it's slower if they all wrap up the ball. Whatever the refs do, coaches will find ways to slow the opposition's play-the-balls down, cause it makes it much easier to defend.

The "surrender" tackle rule is to blame as well. If a bloke surrenders in a tackle, he loses the opportunity to break the defence. He doesn't need to be further punished by being forced to play it slowly. By the same token, the defence has done nothing to earn a slow play-the-ball by having the attacker surrender.

This "surrender-dominant" bullsh*t is just a way for the refs to cover their own arses by taking the discretion out of it. They were getting attacked for being inconsistent so they found a way to protect themselves. It's a blight on the game.