The V'Landy's era .. Pass or fail poll

[Woodsie]

I have listened to all the posts predicting the V'Landy's apocalypse with patience and restraint .. time to get some relaxed and considered opinions during this quite time ..

Whilst not necessarily relaxed or considered .. here are mine ..

Co-Vid .. He was the best and most successful sporting leader worldwide .. outstanding

Wrestle Mania ... Whilst my initial response was to dislike the six again ... I have come to accept that if this is the price we needed to pay to rid the game of the wrestle scurge ... then so be it ..

Speed and fatique ... I think the game is a better spectacle .. and more players like Sam Walker and Schuster will appear and benefit... slower restarts and fatique will be better managed and injuries are part of the game ..

Head tackle crackdown ... 100% had to make the hard decision and crackdown even harder ... A statement was made in the 1st two weeks and it appears players and coaches listened ... brain farts and ill-discipline will be punished severely ...

Sin Bin and send off's ... I come from an era when send off's occurred ... I don't have an issue with it .. for me it adds another layer of complexity .. both of adversary and opportunity .... have never liked or accepted the assertion that they ruin a game ... some of the best wins in folklore were made a man down ...

Who and for what a sin bin or send off is warranted is the issue ... I believe the grading and adjudication will get it correct in the coming weeks ..

Faking injury and coaches ... a blight on the game ... and one that I believe will be given short shrift ... coaches have since 1908 proven that no good change should go unpunished or challenged ... they will pull their heads in under duress ...

Blowout scores .. this is the natural result of opening the game up and reducing play makers being bashed around the head .. whilst I agree that a determined and inspired defensive effort is as good as it gets ... so is watching some of the amassing try scoring feats the modern players can construct ...

For me the game is as good to watch as ever ..

 

[ManEagle]

I have listened to all the posts

I thought I saw a guy the other day going up the street with his ear to every light post, now I Know why

 

[Will on the hill]

I gave a pass mark but in truth it's still to early to tell. With so many changes it will take at least another year or two to settle into the new normal. Only then will we be able to accurately judge V'landys success or failure.

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

I thought I saw a guy the other day going up the street with his ear to every light post, now I Know why

What about the pedestrian crossing ones? They’re a ticking time bomb!

 

[Ron E. Gibbs]

Too early to tell for me, but so far this administration as a whole has seemed more like a continuation of the old NRL "react first, think later" approach to the game than anything revolutionary. His bulldozer style was probably what was needed during COVID, but if he wants players and fans to get on board with his plans for the game he should probably at least involve them in the conversation. Change may well be necessary and inevitable but he hasn't managed a lot of the processes at all well.

 

[ManEagle]

What about the pedestrian crossing ones? They’re a ticking time bomb!

Well you can never accuse @Woodsie listening to fence posts.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

Pass mark for me , some of what he’s done has been good , others the jury is still out.

Maybe if the Refs can get past this ridiculous sending everyone off for a love tap , and the emergence of milking as a major part of the game ( it’s always been bubbling away but now it’s an epidemic) I might change my vote.

 

[Ranga]

I said he needs to do better. And by better, I mean he needs to stop with the 'Captain's calls' and changing policy on the run without proper due diligence.

The six again is the change I am mostly thinking of and the resulting blow outs. He can say that the struggling teams need to do better and that roster construction is the fault of the clubs, but the Commission introduced the rule without warning and gave the clubs no time to adjust or reconstruct their roster. Some might say that every team was in the same boat, but the truth is that other than Penrith who woefully under achieved in 2019, the top teams are the same as in 2019 (except the Raiders) with the only difference being the gulf between the top teams and the 'also rans'. I don't pin that on the clubs, I pin that on a rule change that gave a further benefit to better teams.

I am happy with the focus on protecting players against concussions and I believe that the approach will settle down in time and be OK. But the implementation was again extremely amateurish.

Players don't need to have the final say on changes, but they do need to be consulted. At the end of the day, they are the ones that are playing the game and the ones that are performing in public for all to see and critique. It's not as if it is hard to afford them some process fairness.

 

[sheridanstand78]

He deserves huge credit for navigating the Covid crisis, without him, clubs would have gone under.

My concern is the product we have at the moment. The new rules designed to eliminate wrestling and head high and crusher tackles have spawned a new threat to the game which is players now doing everything to milk penalties, get opponents sin binned and being coached to lay down to con referees. This urgently needs to be addressed as watching a game right now is a whole lot of frustration especially when your team plays an away game and this crap just makes the game stop start and gets away from the thing they are trying to create a faster cleaner game!

 

[Tragic Eagle]

The product that is being dished up right now is shocking and the game will follow the same fate as the ARU. People will stop watching. I loved watching all NRL games not anymore.

 

[Mark from Brisbane]

I think one thing he could do better is consult with the players group before making major rule changes.

It’s easy to say “ we have to change for this reason “ but in reality the implementation can be an issue.

 

[Andrew..]

I was initially very impressed with V'Lanny's "get things done" attitude during Covid but that lustre has well and truly been tarnished by how he's handled the concussion dilemma. By all means, go after players who deliberately attack the head but I feel they are over-policing accidental contact and ruining the fabric of the game. Hopefully, common sense will prevail and they will find that sweet spot but until that time my love of the game will continue to wane.

​

 

[Tragic Eagle]

PV says he won't back down. The game will die.

 

[Kevinward777]

The product that is being dished up right now is shocking and the game will follow the same fate as the ARU. People will stop watching. I loved watching all NRL games not anymore.

Bingo - give this man a prize.

For me, the answer is revealed by the fact that I didn't watch a single minute of live football over the weekend. Not a single minute of the sport I have enjoyed and followed above all other sports for near on fifty years.

I did however go and watch an A Grade game - it was a ripper of a contest. Some awesome defence. The NRL must have forgotten to send their directive out to the local teams.

 

[mosto]

Pass mark.

Agree with a lot of what you said @Woodsie. The main criticism I have is the over correction to head contact. I see, and agree, with the intent, but it seems almost any head contact is a penalty and often a sin bin, which I don't quite agree with. Hopefully it will adjust back slightly.

Overall I think he's had a positive impact and a vast improvement on Greenturd.

 

[Woodsie]

Pass mark.

Agree with a lot of what you said @Woodsie. The main criticism I have is the over correction to head contact. I see, and agree, with the intent, but it seems almost any head contact is a penalty and often a sin bin, which I don't quite agree with. Hopefully it will adjust back slightly.

Overall I think he's had a positive impact and a vast improvement on Greenturd.

Agree, the big issue now is the adjudication of head highs .. I am optimistic that a sensible outcome will come about ..

I am surprised how quickly we forget ... it was less than a year ago that people were saying they were done with watching league because of the slowing down and wrestle mania in every single tackle ... and the sheer boredom of the game becoming the robotic 5 hit-ups followed by a kick, or the compulsory and predictable block play if in an attacking position.

We have eliminated the wrestle .. All hail Pete .. and now we are whinging that more tries are being scored and the play is exciting and unpredictable ... and we are witnessing the rebirth of "creative" halves ... eg Schuster, Walker, Laiu etc ..

And all the usual suspects are jockeying to muddy the waters with incompetence or self interest ... the bunker, the ref's, the clubs, the coaches and the players ... good luck making any useful headway if you are ever unfortunate enough to attempt to get a consensus of action from those disparate and opposing groups ...

 

[anthonyb1965]

I gave him a "very good", purely for the COVID navigation but that is fading quickly. The head high initiative has been a debacle and needs to be sorted very quickly.

I used to attend the Brumbies regularly but Super Rugby has turned into Super Boring, haven't been to a match for about 6 years.

I pray our game doesn't follow a similar path.

 

[Terry Zarsoff]

Well you can never accuse @Woodsie listening to fence posts.

Or talking to brick walls.

 

[mave]

Anyone that has not once, but twice, changed the rules/and or interpretations of existing rules, mid season, without any notice and consultation gets a fail from me.

And these have not been " tweaks".
The 6 again, and sin bin for love taps has had huge influence on the individual matches, on what type of players the clubs need on their roster, etc.

I can live with any changes, but clubs need the opportunity to build a roster, train for specific rules, etc with a full off season in the bank.

Edit....AFB leaving us, and us picking up Lawton, is the exact example of what I'm saying.

 

[NYEagle]

Needs to be better, but compared with Greenturd a pass mark.

I like the use of regional grounds, a more rugby league mindset, I don't like the new rules, they need tweaking to punish divers and avoid overreaction to slaps.

NYEagle