Rule Change

[nodd]

Why not just police the rules we have at the moment. Every year they decide to have a crackdown on a certain aspect of play, whilst conveniently forgetting other rules, so of course the game evolves with the way the referee polices it.

One of the biggest blights on the game is the wrestle in the tackle, which has come about because we had virtually evolved to touch footy status with the speed of the ruck and submission in tackles. We have plenty of existing rules in place which will slow the ruck down for the attacking side without the need for the defensive side to wrestle. It's just a matter of them deciding to police it.

* Penalise attacking sides for not playing the ball square, and on the mark. All this walking forward and sideways to disadvantage the markers is farkin rubbish, blow the whistle and penalise them FFS. It's no good the clowns with the whistle yelling out that they have shortened the ten by walking off the mark, big farkin deal they have achieved their objective of taking the markers out of play.
* Penalise the attacking side if the player playing the ball lays a hand on the marker. It's against the rules plain and simple, but they choose to allow the markers to be molested every ruck. Ditto if the marker touches the attacking player.
* Penalise the attacking side for not getting to their feet (both) before playing the ball. All this putting the ball on the ground and pushing yourself up and over as a play the ball is bull$hit.
* Bring back the raking for the ball by the marker. It'll soon stop the above play if you cop a size 12 set of studs in the top of your hand as you put the ball down to push yourself up off the ground. You'll have to get right to your feet and take some care with the ball so that it isn't raked.

If they chose to apply the rules we have then the ruck would naturally have to slow down somewhat if play the balls had to be performed properly, thus allowing the defensive side a little respite and less need for the wrestle. Put the onus on the attacking side in the ruck.

And will someone please tell Gallop, or Finch, or whoever reviews the rules, to get rid of the double movement rule. Stupidest rule in the book and for the life of me I can't see why we have it. Anywhere else on the field you can fight in the tackle and scrounge every inch on the ground, but get tackled 1 inch from the line and you have to freeze every muscle for fear of double movement. If you can get the ball across the line before the ref calls tackle then it's a try in my book, who gives a flying whether the arm carrying the ball has touched the ground or not. It'll get rid of so many contentious subjective video ref calls.

Totally agree with all you said C&C.

What is the point of having the rule book if the rules are ignored?