Plan to use GPS technology in NRL footballs to track forward passes

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Berkeley_Eagle

Current Status: 24/7 Manly Fan
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CRICKET has its Eagle Eye, Snickometer and Hot Spot. Tennis has Hawk-Eye. Swimming has electronic sensors in the pool, athletics has photo finishes.

Rugby league has got its video referees to judge offside, foul play, grounding of the football and just about everything else - except for forward passes.

Now one of Australia's leading sports technology companies, GPSports Systems, is developing cutting-edge software that will ensure an accurate ruling on forward passes from next season.

It works like this ... a micro chip and battery (the size of small finger nail) is included in the layering of Steeden footballs for NRL use only. A signal is sent via satellite to computer grid in the video referee's box within a quarter of a second.

A computer alarm or beep will sound if the ball is propelled forward from a player's hands - not for passes that have been directed backwards but float forward. The video referees will alert on-field officials in a process that takes just a few seconds and will not interfere or slow down the run of play.


GPSports System spokesman Damien Hawes declined to go into great detail about his invention because the company is still in the process of getting a patent on the device.

However, he did say: "I can confirm we'll have a positional system for the football that will get down to a centimetre for accuracy and reliability of where the ball moves on the field. Our staff have been working on it for some time because it has to be robust enough to handle kicking, passing, impact in tackles and players falling on it.

"It's something we will take to the NRL during the off-season.

"There is no question it will help on the adjudication of forward passes."

Referees boss Bill Harrigan concedes at least six tries have been allowed this season from forward passes and that others have been called back from legitimate passes.

One blatant miss - when Robbie Farah passed 1m forward to Blake Ayshford in Gosford last Friday night - cost Manly the game and possibly a $100,000 bonus that comes with the minor premiership.

"Considering the number of tries scored, it's a small percentage, " Harrigan said.

"But if anyone can show us technology that is going to help our guys, I'm all for it. Umpires and referees in other sports like cricket and tennis are getting help all the time."

Channel 9 has welcomed the innovation and wants it to be part of their television broadcasts next season. "It would be a fantastic thing for television," said Nine's sports technology guru Brad McNamara.

"It will tell you exactly what angle the ball leaves a player's hands within a quarter of a second. The fans will love it and it will take enormous pressure off referees."

A spokesperson for Steeden, whose footballs are made in India, said manufacturing a football with a sensor was a possibility and said the company looked forward to having talks with GPS experts.

"It's definitely something we could look in to," brand and marketing manager Leah Curtis said. "It's something that could be included in the layering of the ball. The mechanics would have to ensure it didn't affect the performance of the football."

Harrigan said he was looking forward to being shown the new technology that could be trialled in the All Stars match in February and other pre-season matches."If this sort of technology was available and it takes pressure off the referees, I'd be all for it," he said. "If it can happen without impacting on the continuity of the game, it's something I'd love to look at."

NRL boss David Gallop said of the plan: "If it works then we would consider it - tracking devices used in cricket and tennis are terrific. Anything that is going to help our game and help our referees is worth looking at."


GPS IN FOOTY
Do you think it's a good idea?
Yes
No
VOTE NOW http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/plan-to-use-gps-technology-in-nrl-footballs-to-track-forward-passes/story-e6frexnr-1226108565226
 
Absolutly the way forward (pun intended)

takes away human error, bias and missing passes due to having your view blocked
 
I like the idea, as long as it's used as an assisting guide in the officials' determination of weather a pass is forward within the rules of the game.

They do need to continue to include forward momentum in the decisions.

Honestly, they don't miss many these days with both touchies and refs looking for it.
But as we have seen they are all also looking for other things and can miss others.

I don't think some automatic signal from some GPS motion tracking should arbitrarily equate to a forward pass call - it should just indicate a likelihood.
Course, it seems then that the video ref would need to judge them.

I wouldn't mind that.
 
Best part is they can have Harrigan stationed permanently on one of the satellites to make sure the equipment is ok. He might get lonely but it's worth the sacrifice.
 
Get rid of this momentum rule forward passes being accepted. Keep it simple. If the ball travels forward it is a forward pass. Manly have been done on at least 4 games in the last 3 years. These are match winning games for the opposition. No other team can say they have been robbed by forward passes like Manly have been. Dessie should compile footage and send it off to the NRL to show them how we have been ripped.
 
It would be a lot simpler and cheaper to simply find referees that have eyes, common sense and are not biased.
 
eagleE said:
Get rid of this momentum rule forward passes being accepted. Keep it simple. If the ball travels forward it is a forward pass. Manly have been done on at least 4 games in the last 3 years. These are match winning games for the opposition. No other team can say they have been robbed by forward passes like Manly have been. Dessie should compile footage and send it off to the NRL to show them how we have been ripped.

this....

Why we have rules that allow for so much ambiguity I don't know.

if the ball looks to go forward, it's a forward pas, case closed, end of story, pack a scrum
 
Fonz said:
The old momentum arguement hey!

yes but given the ref's can barely tell their asses from their elbows, giving them any room to interpret things is a bad idea. Take the ambiguity out of the equation. Momentum or not, 9 times out of 10 you throw it backwards it goes backwards. End of story. How can we expect the ref's to have any knowledge of physics when they have barely any knowledge to begin with
 
Sounds like a great idea as long as it doesn't affect the flow of the game. But do we really need this?

Following on from this how about they use this sort of technology in other areas of the game? Eg. to tell when a player is offside or touched the sidelines? This could be done by having a sensor in each players shoes (although might be a problem if some other part of their body is infringing). And you could go further by putting sensors along the sidelines and goal lines. The possibilities are endless.

This could finally do away with the refs once and for all :)
 
I thought the NRL and refs already had an iron-fast rule on forward passes:
if it happens against Manly it is NOT forward!
 
So sweeping backline movements and cutout passes die? you have to stop to pass if you dont take forward momentum into account,such a boring game it would make
 
Sometimes i think refs and commentators over exaggerate the impact the momentum argument has on ball flight to justify a forward looking pass.

I have no idea of the distance a ball can travel forward at a given speed due to momentum but "most" times in my uneducated opinion the speed the player is running at would normally be under 25km/h.(yes i understand top speeds are more but most passes are executed under this speed) I doubt passes that look obviously forward have been due to momentum so i'm totally for just simplifying the rule at present---i mean in the end 90-95% of decisions are probably correct so this technology would have to be almost full proof to justify the expense---- if so i'm all for it.

In the end i dont blame our loss due to a forward pass that was executed after a yawning gap was run through we only have ourselves to blame for poor defence---i hate the forward flat and no look passes that can change a way a defense reads a play though---some flat passes i can deal with but some that are described as flat are not.
 
Technical Coach said:
Sometimes i think refs and commentators over exaggerate the impact the momentum argument has on ball flight to justify a forward looking pass.

I have no idea of the distance a ball can travel forward at a given speed due to momentum but "most" times in my uneducated opinion the speed the player is running at would normally be under 25km/h.(yes i understand top speeds are more but most passes are executed under this speed) I doubt passes that look obviously forward have been due to momentum so i'm totally for just simplifying the rule at present---i mean in the end 90-95% of decisions are probably correct so this technology would have to be almost full proof to justify the expense---- if so i'm all for it.

In the end i dont blame our loss due to a forward pass that was executed after a yawning gap was run through we only have ourselves to blame for poor defence---i hate the forward flat and no look passes that can change a way a defense reads a play though---some flat passes i can deal with but some that are described as flat are not.

Totally agree. 25km/h would be pretty much spot on for top speed in the NRL.
Over 60m the record is 33.8km/h and over 100 37.58km/h by Ussain Bolt. Not even our competitions fastest runners would be close to that.

Add to that, not many players are running at top speed when they pass, at list 90% of the time they slow down, even if a little to pass the ball.

25km/h isn't very fast and wouldn't carry a lot of momentum with it, which is why these guys can stop almost on the spot
 
Daniel said:
Fonz said:
The old momentum arguement hey!

yes but given the ref's can barely tell their asses from their elbows, giving them any room to interpret things is a bad idea. Take the ambiguity out of the equation. Momentum or not, 9 times out of 10 you throw it backwards it goes backwards. End of story. How can we expect the ref's to have any knowledge of physics when they have barely any knowledge to begin with

Yeah ok. Let's completely slow down the speed of the game. Why don't we just have the defence wait 5 seconds after the ball is played so when the ball reaches the winger in a backline movement they might have some chance of making the advantage line.
 
Fonz said:
Daniel said:
Fonz said:
The old momentum arguement hey!

yes but given the ref's can barely tell their asses from their elbows, giving them any room to interpret things is a bad idea. Take the ambiguity out of the equation. Momentum or not, 9 times out of 10 you throw it backwards it goes backwards. End of story. How can we expect the ref's to have any knowledge of physics when they have barely any knowledge to begin with

Yeah ok. Let's completely slow down the speed of the game. Why don't we just have the defence wait 5 seconds after the ball is played so when the ball reaches the winger in a backline movement they might have some chance of making the advantage line.

In any given game, how many passes do you see that look forward?

usually the only ones you see that look forward are forward, as such it would do nothing to the speed of the game, it just means passes that look forward would be judged as such and we would have more correct calls than game costing bad calls.

In fact I can not think of one pass this season that has looked forward that wasn't on closer examination.

The fact is that when players make breaks they usually have to dodge and weave and slow down unless they are clean through, in which case they never have to pass.

I cant fathom how this would slow the speed of the game down to any detectable rate.
 
If you throw it flat it will appear back at full speed if both runners are running at full speed.

not only that, how often does that actually happen. I would rather it be called forward than have to look at hand direction etc.

99 times out of a hundred when they look forward they are
 
Fonz said:
So at full speed, how do you throw a flat pass?

Throw the ball slightly backwards to counter act the forward momentum, doing this correctly will result in a near enough flat pass which would still register as slightly backwards via an accurate GPS system.

We just need to teach the players physics, can you imagine someone like Inglis having to sit through a physics lecture ... next he might even learn how planes fly. :D :D :D
 

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