The refereeing is also less consistent and more confusing than ever and the games are less competitive then they have been in ages.
The wrestle was bad, but the way you fixed that problem was simply to consistently enforce the rules we had and ignore morons like Buzz Rothfield and Gus Gould cynically moaning about stoppages in the media to try and get their clubs an advantage in the ruck.
After a couple of weeks all the teams would have been forced to adapt or be penalised out of the game, then you wouldn’t have had a problem anymore.
Instead we created vague rules that created as many problems as they fixed, and didn’t fix any of the big issues they were created to fix, and are now in a phase of pretending that all is great ‘because the game is faster and there’re less stoppages’.
Well I must admit that I agree whole heartedly agree with these sentiments and was royally pissed off too with the imbeciles that would criticise the ref and NRL for enforcing the rules only to then criticise them for allowing the wrestle to takeover the game.
Yes if they had stuck at it for longer and even been harsher on players wrestling, especially teams like the Storm(take down the top dog first) and sin binned them out of the game if necessary, then manipulators like Bellamy would have been forced to stop or be penalised out of the game.
All the media had to do was be in line with the edict until it was sorted. It wouldn't of taken longer then a month. Like I said I would have penalised a team out of being able to win a game. I would have sent every player off(sin bin) on the 3rd infringement. But I would have made a point of really hammering Melbourne the most. I would have ground them into the ground so to speak.
Take them out and the rest would have fallen. But instead the media are absolute tossers looking for a headline over the good of the game that feeds them. Squealed like a stuck pig and the fans(cattle) followed.
Instead, the press should have all been singing from the same music sheet and pointed out that this needs to be done and that we will all have to put up with it until these cancerous coaching tactics are removed from the game once and for all.
But that never happened and never will so the next best thing are these new rule changes that at least give us a game that is constantly moving. I started to tune out of games in the old wrestle era. At least now I watch games until the blowout happens. But that can be addressed in future seasons with better player development. The wrestle was never going to get better only worse.
Now it is up to the Clubs to start to develop players to be able to compete in this new NRL reality. I believe that they will. They will be forced to or die at the cellar of the ladder forever and have massive scores constantly put on them. No club can survive in the NRL if that is continually happening to them.
They will incur to many monetary losses and then talk will eventually be relocation or die. Clubs have a way of clicking into gear when that starts to happen. But way before that happens, I believe that the weaker clubs will firstly try to buy their way out of trouble and when that doesn't work will start to look around and eventually try to mimic what the most successful clubs are doing. That being going big on player development.
Some media types have already stated that that is what is slowly happening right now in fact. Which if true is the best thing that can happen to the NRL for its long term successful and prosperous existence.
But we will see.
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