Before rugby league gets fixed, let's make sure it's broken

[Grimmace]

Before rugby league gets fixed, let's make sure it's broken
November 18, 2006

There are arguments for tinkering with rugby league, and there are plenty against it, writes Jacquelin Magnay.

TELEVISION audiences are up and junior numbers are increasing. So why, then, has there been such an introspection about the rules of rugby league? Why is it that some great thinkers of the game want change? Just what is wrong with rugby league as it is?

Some of the hierarchy don't think there is a problem - the 13-a-side game just needs a bit of annual tinkering to maintain a healthy balance between defence and attack, and changes usually involve the addition of technology or increasing the speed of the game to help the referees. Others say there needs to be a radical re-think of the premise of having 13 players on the field. With the challenges for sporting loyalty charging in from the AFL and soccer, rugby league officials are conscious the game has to evolve into a more entertaining package, and that means injecting more of the brilliance of Billy Slater, Darren Lockyer, Mark Gasnier and Greg Inglis.

Interestingly, the man leading the chorus on the need to tilt the game towards attack and get the ball out to the back line is former coach Warren Ryan, who instigated the terrifying compressed defence at Canterbury in the 1980s that brought about extending the 5m defensive line to 10m.

And it was that seemingly innocuous shift of the defensive line that initially drew out the attacking flair of Manly and Canberra in the 1987 grand final. But coaches being coaches, they have since exploited the longitudinal space with darting dummy-half runs, and the game has turned in on itself rather than being more expansive.

Some statistics from NRL games last season show as much as 90 per cent of each ruck is handled by the dummy-half running into the defence for a yardage play, or it goes one pass wide of the ruck. The role of the five-eighth has been usurped; nowadays the hooker and the halfback orchestrate the moves and the athletic centres and fullbacks have to come roving into the attack as extra men close to the play-the-ball to see any action.

"It has got to the point where there is repetitious and boring dummy-half running that has overtaken the game like a disease," Ryan said.

"It is currently a brick-wall game. Some men like Shane Webcke and Petero Civoniceva tuck the ball under their arm and run into this brick wall and the great movements of attack from the greats are so rare."

His solution? Take two men out of each team and trial the 11-a-side game to see whether the players like it and whether it is more entertaining to witness. Ryan said he would add a new rule that the dummy-half would be penalised if caught with the ball, except in the final 10m at each end of the field.

"It would create additional space in the lateral line and lead to an increase in visual chances," he said. "You would have a situation where forwards would develop passing skills before the line as well as flopping the ball back for second-phase play. It would be a wonderful development of forward play.

"We shouldn't die wondering, we should have a look at it and see if it produces a better game."

Ryan said reducing the numbers may also reduce the serious injuries suffered by players because it would cut out the incidence of gang tackling.

"Rather than have the players blast their way to try and get a result, they can finesse the ball and establish skill to do it and in some way the ball does some of the work that the bodies currently do," he said.

Wests Tigers coach Tim Sheens said that dummy-half running isn't bog- ging down the game, but he coaches his players to try to off-load before being tackled. According to him, the good teams blend their dummy-half options. "The game is always a work in progress," he said. "Do we think the game was better than last year? Most people generally thought it was, even though the stats show the play-the-ball was slower than in 2005.

"I can't see 11-a-side being introduced, the game is as it is. But I understand why we need attacking play and we have tampered with the interchange to make the play more attacking."

The most experienced dummy-half in the game, Newcastle's Danny Buderus, said: "Rugby league is rugby league and there is just enough space out there. It is hard enough to defend against what is out there now." He thought, however, that an 11-a-side or even a nine-a-side game would help developing league nations.

As it is, the Ryan-led suggestion from the rugby league think tank didn't get put to the vote at Wednesday's NRL operations meeting, but it has stimulated debate.

St George Illawarra coach Nathan Brown said there were too few good halves around, but said the proliferation of dummy-half running wasn't the cause, rather the junior rule of having to pass the ball three times was stymieing skill development. North Queensland's Graham Murray said the 10m rule was supposed to open up the game but resulted in the dummy-half issue. He wasn't sure fewer players would work.

Source:smh

[Steve]

I don't know why they think high scores = entertainment.

Soccer is mentioned as a challenge to league popularity, yet soccer, arguably the most popular sport in the world, has very low scorelines. When you score a goal, it's something.

Increasing the ease of attack devalues tries. New try/point scoring records just don't seem as impressive as they used to.

I don't think cutting down the number of men on the field will help, either.
Look at scrums. the forward pack are taken out of the game. And the halfback passes to one player, who takes a hit up. There's no running out wide, no throwing the ball around. That said, scrums are a joke, and the forwards are out of the scrum before the ball, and most times it's a forward making the tackle.

[Super Cronk]

The only thing that needs changing is refs and some of the rules, or the "interpretation of rules".

11 a side? i dont like that idea...leave the game as it is, just improve ref standards, security at some grounds and im happy.

[~lee~]

Ryan said he would add a new rule that the dummy-half would be penalised if caught with the ball, except in the final 10m at each end of the field.

Is he having a laugh?

[Coaster]

Its a short jab at Brisbane and how they won the GF this year.

But Gf's are alot different to normal NRL matches, and there always has been different game plans in finals.

I agree with Steve about the lower scores being better value.

In Soccer 98% of games come down to the wire becuase of the low score lines, we certainly dont need blow outs in league, that are over at the 20 min mark.

Ryan is a clever man, but he got this one wrong.