Not a fan of the early held call

[Jerry1]

This weeks games have been ruined by the early held call.

When you can't drive in a tackle it may as well be touch footy. Not a lot of use having forwards if this continues.

I understand the NRL want to speed up games but it's getting to be a non contact sport not the gladiatorial combat of old. I'm still old school & don't mind the shoulder charge.

Dinosaur, maybe but I long for the old days of tuff footy - the kind of footy Toove's played. Hard fast & a warlike attitude.

League is turning into soccer. Stay down & hope the refs go back to look at a replay so you can get a soft as penalty.

Hope we can get back to tuff grinding footy some point in the future.

 

[Killer03]

It's almost back to 10 years ago when there was the surrender tackle that teams were doing to get quick play of the balls.

Whilst I don't want to watch 80mins of Greco roman wrestling, I don't want to watch touch footy either. Why does the game need to be sped up? This obsession with speed is killing rugby league. If I wanted to watch speed I'd rent the movie and throw popcorn at Keanu Reeve's acting.

 

[Masked Eagle]

I really don't know what the solution is. Everyone hates the slow ruck, but when you clean that up you get more dummy half running. You limit dummy half running by allowing defence to get set, especially the markers and they just can't physically get there unless they slow down the play the ball. I've heard several options like limiting people into the tackle and bringing back the 5m but IMO they all have plenty of downside to them an just create as many problems as they solve.

 

[Brissie Kid]

100% Jerry1.

Aside from the result, that 4-0 semi final last year was the best game all season. The only people who don't agree with that are now running (ruining) the game.

Genuine football playing teams like Manly are going to be stuffed this season if this keeps up.

---

I really don't know what the solution is. Everyone hates the slow ruck, but when you clean that up you get more dummy half running. You limit dummy half running by allowing defence to get set, especially the markers and they just can't physically get there unless they slow down the play the ball. I've heard several options like limiting people into the tackle and bringing back the 5m but IMO they all have plenty of downside to them an just create as many problems as they solve.

There is a way but it is too messy for the NRL control freaks and referees to get their heads around.

So long as the tacklers are making a genuine attempt to get to the marker positions or back to the 10m line they should be allowed to make a tackle against any dummy half that runs within reach of them.

if the team in possession wants square markers and a full 10m then they can have it, so long as they don't play the ball too fast.

If they chose to play it fast, fair enough, but they shouldn't be rewarded with penalties for deliberately running at tacklers trying to get back to marker/10m.

All of the above would force the dummy half to run wider or to pass the ball. That would kill off dummy half scoots and players like Farah doing nothing but trying to milk penalties all game long.

 

[The Who]

Everybody wants to change rules and yet I rarely hear anyone complain about the one rule that has changed rugby league dramatically over the past 5-6 years - and not for the better....
Having two referees!
When will there be an investigation into this failed experiment?