Drew-Sta for the Kangaroos!
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Hybrid
“What do you mean you don’t care anymore?” I asked him.
“Well, frankly, I play for the money.”
Those words sent a stab through my heart. I was having a chat to a lesser known Bulldogs junior in the early 2000’s. Originally a half back that was shifted to hooker, my mate had confided in me that he had lost his passion for the game.
“Man, the chicks though – They swarm over you!”
That pretty much cut me to the core. A friend who I had played with for years, who I had admired for his drive to hit the ‘big time’ had finally ‘cracked’ it. I watched as he took a swill of his beer and moved on to play his move at pool.
“But seriously, the game isn’t what it used to be when we played park. It’s more about fitness than skill; Seriously, the game might look interesting on TV but when you’re out there it’s really not that much fun.”
“Well, why don’t you do something about it?” I quizzed.
He shrugged his shoulders. “What am I supposed to do?”
And there was the stumbling block - The game play was controlled by the administration, not the players.
“You watch, it’s only going to get worse. Teams will do anything to win. The game isn’t even Rugby League anymore; It’s some sort of hybrid. Players like us get chewed up and spat out. We’re too small and like to chance our arm too much. My time is coming and until then I’m in it for the money.”
His words shocked me to the core, to be honest. We had played footy since we were kids and although I wouldn’t rate myself anything more than an flukey full back, he really was the real deal – He controlled the forwards well, had a fantastic kicking game, could pot goals from anywhere and throw bullet passes that would hit players chests time after time. He was a joy to watch and a game breaker; Someone you relied on when the match was close.
Yet when I watched him debut, and saw him out of position, he exhibited none of these. He didn’t really look happy to be out there, and frankly – He was boring to watch.
“What about people like Johns, Gasnier and Lockyer?” I queried, players who in the early 2000’s were a radiant light of skill and mastery.
He shook his head. “Johns is a freak, and Lockyer too; They would have been greats in any era. Gasnier is a mixed bag; Fantastic to watch but inconsistent. Trust me, players like them will always come through, but in the future years they will be less and less until you simply have two sides of robots on the field.”
He potted the black ball to win the game and then looked at me squarely in the eyes. “It’s a different game now.”
My memory of this conversation was stirred when I read an article on Des Haslers ‘Hidden Lair’; A training facility run by the Sydney Institute of Sport. Packed full of devices to train and monitor the fitness of a player, it struck me that the game was in a definitive state of metamorphosis. Where skill and practiced set plays were once the attributes of successful teams, now fitness and attrition had overtaken. Where the contest was once held in the scrum, it is now wrestled out on the ground in the ruck.
When reading the article by James Hooper, these three paragraphs really jumped out at me:
The Sea Eagles players are tested using the sports science equipment every six to 12 weeks, allowing the club to work out the lung capacity, leg speed and leg-power ratio for each player.
Essentially, the club can tune to the minute how long each player is capable of running at optimum fitness levels, hence time to the second when they are fatiguing and should be replaced during a match.
There's no question this is a competitive advantage...
Word Count - 748
I realise that every sport evolves over time, but generally never to the degree where it is unrecognisable. I think, however, that Rugby League is getting to the stage where it would be hard to compare it to the game that kicked off in 1908, let alone a game in 1988. Is what we really follow still Rugby League, or has it become some sort of hybrid that goes about the name ‘The NRL’?
* Text in quotes are from following article:
http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/sport/nrl/story/0,26799,24481401-5012652,00.html