I don't understand the NRL anymore...

[C-Whiz]

Long story short, after watching the past few seasons, I don't understand the sport of NRL anymore and what it is trying to achieve, and I wonder what the future holds. (please note I am not talking about RL in general, but the NRL specifically).

I am aware that I have spent a few years in the wilderness having no ARL/NRL teams to support and raising a family, and the game has changed significantly in that time, but even with the natural changes to the game, it's the unnatural and unnecessary changes to the code every week that has left me bewildered, specifically with interpretation rulings/ rule changes and the incompetence of referees and video referees.

I have given up on trying to decipher how interpretation works, and more frustratingly, have accepted that the refereeing is totally incompetent and so open to interpretation that the coaches must be coaching to each weeks refs as much as any part of a game plan, and that more incompetence/refs on the field hasn't worked, and having incompetence in the video ref's box only adds to the levels of bewilderment with every new weekly change to the game and every video-refs over-rule on the onfield ref's decision, with or without conclusive "evidence". The debacle that has been the finals experience of 2013 is testament to this.

How many times did we listen to Gus say, "imagine if a final was decided by that decision" during the regular season, and here we are seeing outcomes of games largely decided by refs rather than the teams.

I also cannot understand how a game can swing so wildly at half time, that a team that is so totally in control of a game at the 40 minute mark can somehow find themselves so totally outclassed in the next 40, and vice-versa. It's not a gradual change of the flow, it's a total change on every level, and tonight's game is the perfect example of this.

Does anyone else feel this way? Forget your allegiances and whether the outcomes have suited your teams. Is the game being ruined by ref's, coaches, media, betting and administration of the NRL?

I can honestly say, as an already paid up member for next year, that I have been constantly frustrated, sometimes disgusted, often disappointed with the past few seasons, and sadly I feel it's only getting worse. The game of RL and the NRL has a very limited life if it can't even provide a product that allows teams to decide their fate. I have already committed to the Titans and the code in 2014, but I am so piss#d off with the 2013 season in general that I can't pretend that anything about the 2013 season, or the finals season fills me with any confidence that the sport or the code is heading in a positive direction.

Tom Waterhouse is on now. Promoting horse racing through NRL betting. Does it get any more obvious that the NRL is in decline? Oh, and now he is promoting the AFL in prime time NRL.... f#ck this, channel 9 and the media are just as bad as any other part of the administration that is driving the game into disrepute. They should all be fined millions of dollars.

I'm done. Rant over.

[Ryan]

+1
It's not just you mate. The game is is trouble.

[Titanic]

I agree too and I put the blame squarely at the feet of the media because (a) the commentators spend more time trying prove the referees wrong instead of talking the game up and trying to substantiate their wages with holier than thou claptrap, especially Gould, and (2) the print media spend the vast majority of their time on witch hunts for associated issues rather than commentating on the state of play. Bloody disgraceful, imho.

[C-Whiz]

I agree too and I put the blame squarely at the feet of the media because (a) the commentators spend more time trying prove the referees wrong instead of talking the game up and trying to substantiate their wages with holier than thou claptrap, especially Gould, and (2) the print media spend the vast majority of their time on witch hunts for associated issues rather than commentating on the state of play. Bloody disgraceful, imho.

It's annoying because Gould is so hypocritical about the video ref's. One week he is all about the man with the whistle making a decision and getting on with the game, and the next 5 minutes he is all about going to the video ref to make sure we get it right.

The problem is, the video ref seems to run at about 50/50. Gus's mouth runs at 110%.

Watching the Sunday footy show with Sterlo, who seems about the only person in RL who calls things as they are, but he is still very careful not to make to strong a point about the refs/video refs errors.

Coaches get fined $10,000 for having an opinion on refereeing, regardless of how correct they are, so it's no wonder commentators are scared to jeopardise their jobs/careers for having an opinion.

Who is there to stand up and make a stand about the quality of the refs/video refs?

But to be fair, I have always maintained that if a ref makes the wrong call on the spot, we all have a whinge, and we move on. It's the way it's always been. Video refs should have to make their determination by watching the game at normal speed, instead of all this slow-mo BS.

If it looks like a duck at normal speed, swims like a duck at normal speed and quacks like a duck at normal speed, then it's a friggin' duck! No point slowing it down until it and the video ref looks like a goose!

[C-Whiz]

and (2) the print media spend the vast majority of their time on witch hunts for associated issues rather than commentating on the state of play. Bloody disgraceful, imho.

I was in Sydney for 5 days last week, and while I didn't take my mobile phone and shunned social media, I couldn't help but see the Sydney paper with a massive, full colour, front page photo of the QUEENSLAND SHARKS! yep, massive front page photo of Gallen and the boys in photo-shopped Cronulla jerseys with maroon trim, and QUEENSLAND FC across the chest, and a big, bold headline. They also ran another similar full colour photo on the backpage, and then about 3 pages worth inside the paper.

According to the guy from that paper who now gets a pretty good run on the footy show and the Sunday footy show, he is only "reporting" on whispers he hears from closed door discussions, not on any actual plans to move Cronulla. In fact, by his own admission, it was a non-story, yet it ran both pages, front and back, full colour and several pages of copy about how and why it was going to happen. Anything to sell papers I guess.

No sensationalism and scare-mongering going on there. :boo:

[DIEHARD]

News Ltd are warring on Rugby League like they did with Labor and Kevin Rudd. It's pretty messed up. But that doesn't mean that there is plenty wrong. But I think we at least have the ability to make some change. Thank god we aren't owned 50% by News Ltd!

I was very disheartened to read today about massive increases to Origin ticket prices. Which comes a year after a restructure of seating at Oriin at Lang Park dominated by sponsors and members with a small slice for public sale. I'm not happy with how this is going. And to me it means bandwagoners will attend and the people who support Rugby League on a weekly basis will be watching from home or a pub.

Oh yea and Queensland Sharks? That'd be sporting suicide and an insult to our history.

[Coaster]

Queensland will never support a relocated team from over the border,
that wears blue as its main colour,
and has public enemy number 1 as there captain.





Oh hang on

[DIEHARD]

A relocated, failed and hated club. Yup.

But to make comparisons with the Titans isnt really fair. Enough we both agree the club desperately needs more maroons.

Queenslanders have cheered for Norths Devils (Sky Blue), Brothers (White and Navy) and Valleys Diehards (Royal Blue) for generations.

In the case of a Queensland Sharks, the media would galvanise and deathride any relocated club. I'm very much reminded of what happened to the Northern Eagles in the Central Coast.

They gotta get Queensland expansion right. Even if that means letting the Cronulla Sharks play in the NSW Cup exclusively. We need new clubs. Relocation could only possible work to a new frontier location like Perth.

[TITAN PETE]

Queensland will never support a relocated team from over the border,
that wears blue as its main colour,
and has public enemy number 1 as there captain.





Oh hang on

If that team was relocated i don't think their current Captain would be anywhere else but in court for next couple of years

[Skyfire]

I give the NRL a couple years to settle down as independent. So I expect a bloody good 2014 or Ill be on the warpath. Sort it out now fellas.