Scores

[True_Believer]

I've noticed a heap of blow out scores this season across all games - seems to be more than previous years and they seem to have started earlier. Are others seeing this or is it just me? What could possibly be causing it? Is it the introduction of the 6 again rule?

 

[Dragon David]

I've noticed a heap of blow out scores this season across all games - seems to be more than previous years and they seem to have started earlier. Are others seeing this or is it just me? What could possibly be causing it? Is it the introduction of the 6 again rule?

There have been many blow out scores so far this year True_Believer involving all teams. Our Anzac Day score of course being the worst one followed by the Storms big win over the Bunnies.

I think that the pace of the game plus the inclusion of the 6 again rule has made for the scores to blow out. Teams that have plenty of possession and repeat sets and penalties early in the game can put on 2-3 tries and it blunts the spirit of the players of the other teams. The losing team just gets ambushed and exhausted once the winning team gets a roll on with plenty of the ball. It has happened to the better teams even.

The fitter a team can be the less chance of it being blown out of the water.

 

[BLM01]

I've noticed a heap of blow out scores this season across all games - seems to be more than previous years and they seem to have started earlier. Are others seeing this or is it just me? What could possibly be causing it? Is it the introduction of the 6 again rule?

I will tell you why it is
They have reduced allowing the Melbourne wrestle (mostly) to speed up the game..that is a good thing
Clubs do the hold up tackle and a 3rd-4th man in before a held call to slow the play the ball down to compensate...but leaves them short in the line if a quick play the ball

The real issues are
1. the refs allowing incorrect fast play the balls and includes the subtle moving off the mark or to the side. The refs call it back 1 in 50
2. The 6 again gives no team a break especially when discretionary and zaps juice which might get defended but hurts teams at back end of halves
3. The 7 tackle set is a blight
4. Poor tackle technique to combat the hold up tackle
5. Refs take too long to call held meaning numbers have to get in the tackle and cant get back in time

To solve it under current rules but wont happen and many wont like it but you would have to go back to a 5 metre ruck

 

[since77]

In a weird way we've kind of gone back to the modern equivalent of the very old days before the 4 / 6 tackle rule was brought in. A rule ironically brought in to give teams a chance against dominant St. George teams.
In those days in theory it was possible to have the ball an entire half without the opposition getting their hands on it. Of course that doesn't happen now but once a team gets on a roll, often assisted by the referee constantly punishing a tired and staggered defensive line, its nearly impossible to stop. Scoreboard damage can happen ferociously quickly. It can't just be put down to "bad defence".
Now we have a game in which vastly superior athletes to other eras can gain a huge swell of momentum due to vague 6 again calls, a lightning fast ruck and a myriad of other rule changes designed to "make the game faster and more exciting". Once a team gets on the back foot, its in trouble.
We're going to continue to see teams behind by 24 or so at half time and 50 -60 at full time while this continues.
But hey, apparently its a better product......

 

[Inisai Toga]

I will tell you why it is
They have reduced allowing the Melbourne wrestle (mostly) to speed up the game..that is a good thing
Clubs do the hold up tackle and a 3rd-4th man in before a held call to slow the play the ball down to compensate...but leaves them short in the line if a quick play the ball

The real issues are
1. the refs allowing incorrect fast play the balls and includes the subtle moving off the mark or to the side. The refs call it back 1 in 50
2. The 6 again gives no team a break especially when discretionary and zaps juice which might get defended but hurts teams at back end of halves
3. The 7 tackle set is a blight
4. Poor tackle technique to combat the hold up tackle
5. Refs take too long to call held meaning numbers have to get in the tackle and cant get back in time

To solve it under current rules but wont happen and many wont like it but you would have to go back to a 5 metre ruck

Points 1 and 5 ensure the great tacklers are no longer in the game ( a couple of exceptions). If you reduced the distance in the defensive line somewhat it might encourage more creative football in the ruck. Furthermore, the lack of push and energy needed in the scrums these days ensures there is more energy and velocity and power in the forwards. Never see many penalty goals now because it’s too easy to get down field. Combine this with not being able to steal the ball, ruck the ball or win the ball and you can see where the momentum shifts happen…

 

[Old Timer]

The game is so quick that hardly anyone can keep up with the pace not referees, not linesman, not the bunker, not the team defending with the only exception being the attacking team that gets on a role due to inconsistent and vague application of the rules against the defending team.

The ridiculous thing being the policing of the ruck infringement / 6 again rules all happening at lightening speed yet when a try is scored off a blatant forward pass the bunker is unable to intervene.

As expertly pointed out in another post the attacking teams ability to move off the mark or stepping to the side is a major contributor to why defending teams are unfairly treated often in sequences of 3 or 4.

5 metre rule, contested scrums, no 7 tackle sets, instant send off if a player lifts and elbow will certainly change the dynamics back into a contest

 

[FlickFlano]

Yep ... every rule change for the past 20 years has been an attempt to undo one thing .. the mess created by failing to penalise sides for being off side in ATTACK.

Teams should always have been 10m apart but referees never penalised the attacking side which meant that when anderson and co started playing ultra flat teams were only 5m apart. That is the root of all issues with NRL at the moment.

If attack AND defenisve lines needed to retreat 5m from the ruck then you get that space, you eliminate the wrestle as you dont need to slow the play the ball down so much as to give you team time to make it back 10, you eliminiate the impact of dummy half running which means passing the ball becomes more of an option moving the play further away from the ruck and reducing the players involved in the collisions. You can return to legs tackling because you dont give the opposition attack an advantage on a legs tackle because your team has time to get 5m back so better tackling technique is encouraged. The wrestle, chick wings, holding players up for 3 man tackles it is all designed by the defensive team to give their line time to set.

The other thing about it is that when we had 2 referees it was a perfect time to make it happen. One ref controls the attacking 5m the other ref the defensive 5m or even let the touch judges actually do the job they were originally designed for.

People hear 5m and thing that it is negative because the teams will be closer together again, they simply dont understand that the problem came from not actually enforcing a 5m rule.

When the bartrim mousetrap try in the canberra semi happened Sterlo knew the rule "is it legal" ... the answer is no it isnt.

 

[True_Believer]

Some great insight here. I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one who sees this.

I mean looking at this weekend, there's only 2 games so far that haven't had one team dominate. There's still 2 games left, but I still think that having even one or 2 blow outs every weekend is unacceptable. The occasional one is unavoidable and that will always happen, but to have them every weekend surely must indicate something needs to change.

 

[Lovemedragons]

I will tell you why it is
They have reduced allowing the Melbourne wrestle (mostly) to speed up the game..that is a good thing
Clubs do the hold up tackle and a 3rd-4th man in before a held call to slow the play the ball down to compensate...but leaves them short in the line if a quick play the ball

The real issues are
1. the refs allowing incorrect fast play the balls and includes the subtle moving off the mark or to the side. The refs call it back 1 in 50
2. The 6 again gives no team a break especially when discretionary and zaps juice which might get defended but hurts teams at back end of halves
3. The 7 tackle set is a blight
4. Poor tackle technique to combat the hold up tackle
5. Refs take too long to call held meaning numbers have to get in the tackle and cant get back in time

To solve it under current rules but wont happen and many wont like it but you would have to go back to a 5 metre ruck

Playing the ball with your feet should be enforced, its like touch football at the moment with the roll back which in the past has been policed - but not this year at all.

 

[Dragon David]

Playing the ball with your feet should be enforced, its like touch football at the moment with the roll back which in the past has been policed - but not this year at all.

Why this isn't enforced has got me beat. The scrums you can feed the ball into the back of the scrum when it was a hookers job to rake it back with the ball being fed in the middle of the scrum and this has been allowed for several seasons to quicken up the pace of the game and to tire the defending team. There was a time that if a player did not touch the ball with his foot when he plays the ball, he would give away a penalty, now roll it back is acceptable to again quicken up the game which helps to tire the defending team. I suppose it all is balanced out for both teams playing but it is just amazing that all these changes are here and to me they might as well not have a scrum and instead of playing the ball rolling it under the feet they might as well tap the ball and run. This would make the game faster still.

With so many head knocks nowadays, they might get rid of tackling and revert to just touching a player - isn't that called touch footy? Now that would quicken up the game so much.

 

[Inisai Toga]

Sharks and Raiders…another nail biting edge of your seat cliff hanger….

 

[True_Believer]

Sharks and Raiders…another nail biting edge of your seat cliff hanger….

Yep. I didn't watch any of the other games and only half of the Dragons game. Going by the scores only, I would say that there were 5 blow out scores and 3 close ones without knowing how the actual games went. The Sea Eagles v Eels is maybe a toss of the coin, but definitely all of the others I would consider blow outs.

To be honest I've got no interest in watching any games other than the Dragons at the moment. And even then I'm struggling to bring myself to do it. The gap seems to be widening and it's the same teams week in week out. It's just become a bit predictable.

 

[Como Connection]

Yep. I didn't watch any of the other games and only half of the Dragons game. Going by the scores only, I would say that there were 5 blow out scores and 3 close ones without knowing how the actual games went. The Sea Eagles v Eels is maybe a toss of the coin, but definitely all of the others I would consider blow outs.

To be honest I've got no interest in watching any games other than the Dragons at the moment. And even then I'm struggling to bring myself to do it. The gap seems to be widening and it's the same teams week in week out. It's just become a bit predictable.

I don't other games either, just suffer watching the Dragons.
CC