NRL’s equal and opposite reaction

Todd Greenberg speaks at the NRL Rules Conference. Source: Stephen Cooper / News Limited

SOMEWHERE prominent in the room at Tuesday's NRL Competition Committee should have been written Newton's Third Law: "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction".

NRL boss David Smith calls it the carpet bubble.

"It's one of the things Dave has been saying to me all year," NRL Head of Football Todd Greenberg said.

"You know when you get a carpet bubble and you smooth it out, but then you turn and see a carpet bubble has popped up over there?"

That is rugby league, and certainly has been a result of too many rule changes without enough forethought.

Newton's Third Law, the carpet bubble ... it is why we eliminate the scrum contest and suddenly coaches are blasting referees in post-match press conference.

And it is what the NRL Competition Committee must contend with as they strive to overcome the worrying influence of wrestling on the game.

Todd Greenberg speaks during the NRL Rules Conference. Source: News Limited

Normally an end-of-season three-hour meeting, the committee met on Tuesday for a two-day function to try to properly shape the game's future.

The impact of their decisions are immense.

By not considering the reaction to their changes as has happened in previous years, the bubble effect, the game has got itself to the stage where we now have the dirtiest word in sport: "completions".

Teams don't win because they play with more daring or let loose their tremendous football talent.

They won because they completed at 76 per cent.

Why did they lose?

They completed at 58 per cent.

"You can't win when you're that low," coaches say.

That is what the game has become. Mathematics.

The saving grace of all the other codes ... soccer, AFL and even rugby, are constant switches in possession. It keeps the contest alive.

No longer in the NRL.

NRL coaches and identities attend the NRL Rules Conference. Source: News Limited

We got to this stage because we gave no thought to the repercussions of what we imagined were improved rule changes.

Exhibit A: we took the contest out of the scrum, cheering how it improved the game because it eliminated the ugly scrum, got rid of constant scrum restarts, the frustrating scrum penalties and allowed us to quickly get back to the game.

It looked good in theory.

Well, any time saved is now lost again as we have a committee meeting before every scrum.

More importantly, by eliminating the scrum contest we too out a vital part of the game contested possessions thereby making possession and a lack of mistakes absolutely vital to success. In other words, we ramped up the need for "completions".

It also created the next side effect: it ramped up the emphasis on referees to get their decisions right, making it impossible for coaches to pass off as a simple 50-50 call against them.

And it was simply why. If they got it wrong then the disadvantaged team, with no contested possessions available to them, teams effectively suffered a 12-tackle turnaround: the six you lost against the six they gained.

NRL coaches and identities attend the NRL Rules Conference. Source: News Limited

In a game where possession is crucial, it murdered them.

So now every post-match press conference contains at least one coach complaining about the referees getting it wrong and far too much television commentary is taken up with the same, because it is so crucial to the result.

So a seemingly positive change like tidying the scrum had a monumental follow-on affect.

And nobody seems willing to fix it.

The trick for the committee, which is significant, might be to actually peel the rules and interpretations back rather than legislate new ones.

In some ways the changes needed are simple.

Look at how the game used to be and get back there.

Anda sedang membaca artikel tentang

NRL’s equal and opposite reaction

Dengan url

http://ragaseni.blogspot.com/2014/12/nrlas-equal-and-opposite-reaction.html

Anda boleh menyebar luaskannya atau mengcopy paste-nya

NRL’s equal and opposite reaction

namun jangan lupa untuk meletakkan link

NRL’s equal and opposite reaction

sebagai sumbernya