Some thoughts on league as its played now.

[Nuffy]

I used to be someone who would happily watch every league game going, 9, Fox, you name it.

I never missed a Knights game, either live or on TV. Living in Sydney I would go to local games to watch the Knights, or even Parra stadium with some mates to see Parra run round. I also have season tickets at Hunter stadium.

I got the SMH and Tele everyday for the sport particularly the NRL and had RLW home delivered. I was a big time fan.

I will always be a Newcastle fan because I am a Newcastle boy but the NRL as it stands now is slowly but surely killing my passion for the game.

It's the cynical and self serving nature of what happens every week. Its the hypocrisy of the NRL. Its the inconsistency of refereeing. It's the saloon passages that the same clubs get each year and the joke that is the judiciary.

Let me give you some examples.

The wrestle - It is a blight on the game and ruins the spectacle. Its not a level playing field because some clubs like ours have coaches who are taking a stand for the good of the game and yet we are being penalized for not wrestling well enough.

Referees - I actually think things are getting worse, not better. Last night was a case in point. Buderus gets penalized for a tackle on Pearce after he kicked it. Mullen gets hit exactly the same and it's play on.

Look at the Burgess try on Friday night vs. the Taufua try the week before.

Explain to me how the refs missed the SBW forward pass, how the Roosters went from one of the most ill disciplined team in the club rounds to winning the penalty count last night.

How were the Roosters not penalized for the 100 examples of tunnel ball they played to ensure they got lightning fast play the balls. Yet the NRL was cracking down on this in the first half of the year.

Refs also seem star struck by some players. Cam Smith gets away with murder and refs are very deferential, Gids and Mullo get treated like school boys and aren't even allowed to raise issues half the time. Last night we got penalized for an infringement in the tackle when the replays clearly showed that SBW created the issue and he wasn't even carrying the ball.

The lack of consistency and timidness of the refs is fueling the rise of the manipulative coach.

Manipulative coaches - The actions of many coaches leave a lot to be desired. Who came up with wrestling coaches at clubs, who coaches players to stay down like Maloney last night knowing that the refs will then look for an infringement. Bennett is behind the eight ball because he won't stoop to anything goes type tactics but it seems many will.

Then coaches take advantage of the fact that refs will back down particularly in big games and cynically have their team step up the wrestle, questionable play the balls and being offside in defense knowing that the refs will put the whistle away at some point and then they will get away with anything and some ill disciplined teams can actually win a penalty count.

Scheduling, some clubs like the Broncos get a game every Friday night usually. The Roosters travelled 9000km during the season, the Knights had to travel 20,000km. Why do some teams get to play Melbourne at home without their Origin players missing once and we get to play them twice with their full compliment of stars. Based on scheduling alone, some clubs are given massive legs up into the 8.

Judiciary - its hard to see how more farcical it can get. Its a crap shoot for clubs and players and it seems that your chance of success or failure is based on your club and whether you are a star player. Two examples, Snowden gets 7 weeks because of the broken jaw. Pritchard gets 2 weeks for a far worse example but because Goodwins jaw is stronger, he gets a reprieve. Now if you are a star player, like SBW, you can put a bloke out for a month and still only get 2 weeks.

It's issues like the Barba issue and the myriad unanswered questions including the role of Canterbury management past and present. It's the Earl peptide issue and the numerous unanswered questions arising from that interview. It's how a club can have numerous players with elevated HGH levels and there's no investigation. Its issues like how the Sharks issue is still not resolved and is allowed to fester. Toovey gets a 10k fine for saying what most fans and coaches were thinking and yet other things just slip on by.

I really get the impression that the NRL is run so that a few clubs have a competition to showcase their wares and rotate the premiership amongst themselves. The vast majority of clubs are just expected to make up the numbers and cop the sh*t sandwiches that seem to be dished up by the NRL almost on a daily basis.

I just wonder whether the attendances and ratings are reflective of many fans feeling as disenfranchised as I am. Does the NRL really care?

All I know is that my passion for league in general is slowing dying and I know why.

 

[Jono078]

Excellent post and I sound the exact same as you.

 

[CycloneSteve]

I agree 100% especially on the refereeing standard, its just getting worse. Also, along with that, as you mentioned is the issue of "star struck" referees who wont give penalties for blatant discrepancies. Case in point is Cameron Smiths frequent "go slow" tactics when the Storm are under the pump. He will deliberately give away a penalty rather than have the attack get a quick play the ball and possibly score. We saw the EXACT same thing when we played the Roosters in the regular season (multiple penalties on their own line, no sin binning) and AGAIN last night. Our two penalty goals came from deliberate attempts by the Roosters to give away a penalty rather than concede a try knowing we would probably go for the Penalty goal. P!sses me off no end!

 

[Yosh]

Yeah... Great sport but some of the worst organization in the world.

Refs Re killing the game...

 

[Big Tim]

Dont take this as a negative, but alot of people wont read such a gigantic post.

This is for them:

TL;DR - The NRL is gone to shit, and if it werent for passion for the club, I wouldnt watch at all.

Great post, with some great points.

 

[woodyk2]

Living in the Newy area I know of so many who no longer care for the game. Some of these were deadest die hard supporters of various clubs who no longer have any interest. This has only been in the last 2 years or so. Some are now nearly as anti RL as Bec Wilson !

 

[RHCP]

Code in crisis.

 

[woodyk2]

Code in crisis.

Around here I would definitely say so.

 

[Rod]

Good post Nuffy, I agree with most of what you've said there. I went on a similar rant in the NRL forum about a month ago when the topic was how you rated the season, and a lot of my bugbears about the game at the moment were that similar to yours I decided to track my post down:

- Shoulder charge ban.

- Punching ban. They don't want 'thuggery' in the game to appease the soft brigade and as result there's as much thuggery as ever, we have hands being run across eyes, nuts being grabbed, constant niggling and baiting, face 'pushing' and collar-grabbing. Half of that crap wouldn't be happening if planting one on dogs like Surgess wouldn't see you get an automatic spell.

- Video refs are still very average and the system is illogical, although a lot of people seem to like it. Personally I don't really see the benefit of making an initial, overbearing decision just for the hell of it.

- On-field refs are almost hilarious in their predictability. Penalty count 6-1 in the first half? Set your watch to it evening out in the second half. Everyone clamours for them to use some common sense and use the sin bin for what it is there for......next week guaranteed binnings.

- Players lying down to get penalties is an embarrassment.

- Judiciary is an inconsistent, inept joke. The Snowden and Jeremy Smith incidents in particular left a very sour taste in my mouth as a Knights fan for their incredible harshness compared to similar (and worse) incidents.

- Media darlings and favouritism (sick of hearing about the Burgesses every bloody day, why the f**k do we need to see their mum 10 times a game? etc), the rules state Thurston should have been pulled into line after his comments prior to Snowden's hearing, but nothing. I would argue it even extended as far as rep team selections (Merritt).

- Players acting like entitled assholes, walking out or acting out to get out of contracts, treating the game, fans and teammates with complete disdain, with no repercussions whatsoever from the NRL. They just walk into a new contract with another team.

- Origin is good but it is terribly overhyped and has way too much impact on the season. To use a Knights example, we went down to Melbourne one week and busted our guts against basically their full-strength team, ended up going down 16-14. That's fine, but the following week, the Bulldogs are allowed to play the Storm crippled by Origin and win 37-0 or whatever it was, not only banking the two points against one of the top teams but also +37 in points differential. They end up finishing two competition points ahead of us. I know it's a long season and I'm not solely blaming those two weeks but this is a ridiculous inconsistency that does seem pretty unfair when teams are jostling so hard for positions.

And another I would add from recently is the way the NRL handled the Neil Henry/Thurston situation summed them up to a tee. Blatant inconsistency between Toovey's 10k punishment and Henry getting off scot-free when what he implied was a lot worse. Gutless decision because they were still embarrassed by the 7 tackle fiasco so they were too scared to pull them into line.

Perhaps the ironic thing is that despite all that I still usually look forward to and enjoy sitting down and watching a lot of games, and not just the Knights either. On average over the course of the season I reckon I'd probably watch 5 out of the 8 games each week.

 

[Knight Vision]

I agree with much of what you say. My top issues are

1. The banning of most of the aggressive play in football these days. I love the shoulder charge, and sometimes accidental collisions happens and people get hurt , its part of the game. League is played hard and played by hard men. If people dont like watching the aggressive nature of the sport it let them watch soccer. Dont change what has made the game successful for over 100 years to appease those who really arent very interested in the game anyway.

Issue 1 above has led to my second issue

2. Players taking a dive to milk a penalty. This is a huge concern and one of the greatest and most urgent issues the game faces. This has the potential to tear at the fabric of the game and cause it to implode. It has the potential to ruin the game totally ( one of the main reasons I never watch soccer )

3. Inconsistency in enforcing the rules. Makes my blood boil. It is apparent to most regardless of which team you follow , that some players are untouchable.

4. The scheduling favors some teams, such as the Broncos getting every Friday night game . This advantage cannot be over stated. In professional sport and regular routine is a huge leg up, make no mistake about it. With the Broncos favorable schedule it makes their missing of the top 8 that much more incredible.

5. I'm not convinced about the cap. There is NO doubt in my mind that some teams are cheating the cap. Someone have a look at the Roosters line up and please tell me how they are spending the same as the Eels. It cant be so. I smell a rat in the chook pen this year, no doubt.

6. The wrestle ! I hate it . It aint football its wrestling , get rid of it. NOW

7. and last but certainly not the least and VERY much related to the above issue number 6, is , the interchange. What the Fu$k is George Rose doing on a football field for 10 minutes ? LOWER the interchange, let's bring down the amount of injuries caused by 110 kilo men on fresh legs charging into other tiring players. Lets also reduce the wrestle as players tire, lets open the game up to exciting little guys like Tyrone Roberts , Ben Barba , etc as the bigger players tire. If we dont lower the interchange little guys will eventually be non existent in Rugby League. Instead 100 kilo 5/8's like Sutton will be the norm and 110 kilo fullbacks like Inglis will be required, and we will never have the joy of watching the future Clive Churchill's of the game. The Peter Sterlings stepping through a tiring forward pack close to the line, and the game will continue to be played by programmed robots al la Cooper Cronk.

 

[Nuffy]

The cap is open to rorting and is being rorted.

Imagine a preliminary final where,

One team has 4 current SOO reps and 3 NZ reps including supposedly the most sort after footballer in two codes who is "playing for well below his value"*

Only one has come through the clubs junior system, the rest are recruits.

*suspend reality.

The other club has two SOO reps of which one is a recruit and one is a local junior.

Both are spending the same amount of cap money.

Amazing.

 

[Knight Vision]

The cap is open to rorting and is being rorted.

Imagine a preliminary final where,

One team has 4 current SOO reps and 3 NZ reps including supposedly the most sort after footballer in two codes who is "playing for well below his value"*

Only one has come through the clubs junior system, the rest are recruits.

*suspend reality.

The other club has two SOO reps of which one is a recruit and one is a local junior.

Both are spending the same amount of cap money.

Amazing.

I'm hear'n ya, dont the Roorters have the same recruitment guy as the Storm did during their breach years? I remember Rothfield reporting this development and I think it rather co-incidental that they have now made the GF with a team of deadset superstars of the game. Local juniors should count for less money under the cap and encourage junior development. This would be a huge boost to clubs like Newcastle , Penrith, Parra , Canberra etc.

 

[Nuffy]

Local juniors should count for less money under the cap and encourage junior development. This would be a huge boost to clubs like Newcastle , Penrith, Parra , Canberra etc.

And its for this reason that it will never see the light of day. Some clubs who plunder junior ranks such as the Roosters would lose out big time and their patrons will never let that happen.

 

[Nuffy]

I'm hear'n ya, dont the Roorters have the same recruitment guy as the Storm did during their breach years? I remember Rothfield reporting this development and I think it rather co-incidental that they have now made the GF with a team of deadset superstars of the game. Local juniors should count for less money under the cap and encourage junior development. This would be a huge boost to clubs like Newcastle , Penrith, Parra , Canberra etc.

Yes and I think Rothfield was calling for him to be sanctioned by the NRL.

Unfortunately the Roosters wield disproportionate power within league circles so nothing was done about it.

 

[perverse]

Yes, it's pretty f**ked now. Having said that, my old man has been telling me this for 15-20 years. Full professionalism changed the game, and it's been getting worse ever since.

The NRL can't get it right to save themselves, and the new commission is more of a joke than the last administration, who were always unfairly pasted on these boards. I've been laughing so much at all the blokes that were drinking the koolaid when the commission was first (eventually) launched... that thought it was an instant fix to all our problems. The reality of course is that it's only gotten much worse since they took over.

The banning of the shoulder charge is a f**king joke. The refs are a f**king joke. The judiciary is an absolute farce. Nepotism and favouritism are as rife as ever, and generally focused on the clubs that can pull in the most coin and/or have the most sway at boardroom level and higher - not simply "Sydney" conspiracy as much as a profit conspiracy.

The league has a whole f**kload of problems, and it really stretches me sometimes to continue to give a f**k. If I didn't love the Knights as much as I do I would probably have given up on the NRL years ago... but the problems have intensified dramatically since the new order came in to run the place.

 

[The Showstopper]

If Franklin joins the Swans then the AFL in my opinion are drawing a massive line in the sand for the NRL. Franklin is the SBW of AFL. The number of people who are stating they will switch allegiance to the Swans due to Franklin signing on is massive. His affect is massive These are die hard leaguies I am talking about. Star power is everything in sport.

 

[perverse]

Who is Franklin?

 

[Nuffy]

If Franklin joins the Swans then the AFL in my opinion are drawing a massive line in the sand for the NRL. Franklin is the SBW of AFL. The number of people who are stating they will switch allegiance to the Swans due to Franklin signing on is massive. His affect is massive These are die hard leaguies I am talking about. Star power is everything in sport.

Really, I live in Sydney and I think I know 3 people who follow the Swans, a couple who follow GWS and a few with Melbourne based teams. Most are transplanted Mexicans.

Most people are ambivalent and there are the Eastern Suburbs wankers who jump on the bandwagon when they are doing well.

I don't think Franklin will make an ounce of difference to the average punter.

 

[The Showstopper]

Sorry Perv. Buddy Franklin. I am just going off what I have been hearing from several punters. Won't make an ounce of difference for me personally. WHat do you guys think about this talk of SBW being allowed to play half seasons in the NRL. It has been floated by some media types and NRL heavies the idea that the NRL actually let him play Japanese rugby every year to make a quick million or two then bring him back into the fold? It will create an open market for certain super talented players and anyone who knows anything about competing sports knows it is a powder keg of legality waiting to happen. I have no issue with it myself and in actual fact I don't see why a player can't make money elsewhere on a short term basis if it means we get them full time in our magnificent game. Of course it is not plausible if it is sports which are played over the same time frame as the NRL ie. AFL or Super Rugby

 

[Big Tim]

Sorry Perv. Buddy Franklin. I am just going off what I have been hearing from several punters. Won't make an ounce of difference for me personally. WHat do you guys think about this talk of SBW being allowed to play half seasons in the NRL. It has been floated by some media types and NRL heavies the idea that the NRL actually let him play Japanese rugby every year to make a quick million or two then bring him back into the fold? It will create an open market for certain super talented players and anyone who knows anything about competing sports knows it is a powder keg of legality waiting to happen. I have no issue with it myself and in actual fact I don't see why a player can't make money elsewhere on a short term basis if it means we get them full time in our magnificent game. Of course it is not plausible if it is sports which are played over the same time frame as the NRL ie. AFL or Super Rugby

hasnt been an issue for cricket with the IPL.

It could work, but players would have to realise that they are 1 injury away from not being paid.

No chance I would be paying a player who copped an injury whilst playing another sport, for another team.....