The Who
Journey Man
Poor little Jamie Coward complaining about losing time when the 'Riff deliberately wasted time after building up a big lead in the second half.
The NRL has big issues with (a) too many penalties and (b) deliberate time wasting.
Oh, how I long for the days of Bill Harrigan and low penalty counts. How many did we see yesterday? It must have been close to 20. And then there is all the down-time when players dawdle to a scrum, the goal kicks, when the ball goes out of play, or when the ref gets involved in committee meetings with the captains. I reckon we are only seeing about 55 minutes of football these days.
There is a very simple solution to this:
(a) return to one ref and instruct them to let the game flow, wherever possible. If a minor infringement - such as a player having his hand on the ball - doesn't impede the flow then let it go. Of course, if it causes a disruption then it's a penalty. There are far too many minor penalties these days, and we all know that penalties lead to tries. Also bring in a five-minute sin-bin which can be used for deliberate infringers.
(b) Time off when the ball is not in play. Some critics claim this will lead to matches lasting for 100 minutes. If that's deemed too long, then reduce the match to 70 minutes; 70 minutes of actual football is 20% more than we are currently getting.
The NRL has big issues with (a) too many penalties and (b) deliberate time wasting.
Oh, how I long for the days of Bill Harrigan and low penalty counts. How many did we see yesterday? It must have been close to 20. And then there is all the down-time when players dawdle to a scrum, the goal kicks, when the ball goes out of play, or when the ref gets involved in committee meetings with the captains. I reckon we are only seeing about 55 minutes of football these days.
There is a very simple solution to this:
(a) return to one ref and instruct them to let the game flow, wherever possible. If a minor infringement - such as a player having his hand on the ball - doesn't impede the flow then let it go. Of course, if it causes a disruption then it's a penalty. There are far too many minor penalties these days, and we all know that penalties lead to tries. Also bring in a five-minute sin-bin which can be used for deliberate infringers.
(b) Time off when the ball is not in play. Some critics claim this will lead to matches lasting for 100 minutes. If that's deemed too long, then reduce the match to 70 minutes; 70 minutes of actual football is 20% more than we are currently getting.