NRL 2023 Season Chat

[XD351]

Didn’t see that one coming ! 

[noelm]

No, and the Titans are doing OK against the Eels, but, it's a long way to go yet.

[Rebel]

Cowboys on the march again.

[Rebel]

Parramatta had a brain fade.

Edited May 9, 2023 by Rebel

[Rebel]

Cronulla have lost it.

[noelm]

It's hard to find a consistent team this year, Broncos seem to be pretty stable and going in the right direction. Melbourne (traditional favourites) seem to be hit and miss, Penrith have just fizzled out, Roosters, who knows?, Dolphins, new kids on the block, but firing on all cylinders, Tigers, Dragons, Newcastle still finding new ways to lose, Souths, can beat anyone on their day, Titans, Sharks, Cowboys, Manly, flip a coin, Canberra, finding ways to win and lose in the same game, Bulldogs, keep being unlucky, but snag a win now and then. Not too sure if I forgot anyone?

edit......Eels, as per Roosters, who knows?

Edited May 8, 2023 by noelm

[XD351]

Eels won’t have Moses this week so maybe Canberra can jag one ! 
After the performances last weekend it is near on impossible to pick the winners this week - with the exception of the bunnies v tigers game , I will be happy if the tigers can stay within two tries but I fear that fantasy will be short lived 😭😭😭 . Bet Latrell has the best game of his career ! 

[BaitDropper]

How's the furor going on with the Warriors major sponsor at the minute.

Certainly being very bold with the "cheats" claim...

I must admit, I watched the game, and the hit on Tohu Harris was a decent smack around the chops, he is one tough cookie and is not known for staying down.. But I couldn't for the life of me, understand why the bunker said, because of the "technical rules" no further action was needed, play on.

Now, here's where I can see why the Warriors sponsor would have been livered..  There's a rule that even with unintentional or even incidental contact with the head, a penalty will be awarded. I mean, aren't they clamping down with head knocks and the concussion rule.  The player caught Harris flush on the jaw with a swinging arm in the process of tackling, but after the bunker reviewed it, they said no penalty needed..  I kind of also thought that fords hip tackle, where he got sin binned, did look like a hip drop, but he didn't pull him back over himself, so I was interested to see the what the judicary came up with after the game,  he has not been charged and can play next week !  That means, the Ref and the bunker got it wrong and the warriors lost a man at the crucial last 15 minutes.

This is where I believe that interpretations of the rules and sin binning, is definitely effecting the outcomes of games. Ford never returned to the game after getting 10 minutes in the bin, the coaches reasoning was with 7-8 minutes to go, Ford as a forward wouldn't have got up to speed again.   I watched the hit on Tohu Harris a few more times after the match, some similar instances have resulted in sin binnings this year and suspensions yet alone the mandatory penalty for incidental head contact.

Should the Warriors sponsor have said what he said, No, Cheating is a big label, but they need to have a good hard look at some of these incidences, from not only the warriors game but from all of them and start getting some of these decisions more consistent.  The sin binning for some and the just on report for others, changes games results.  They also had Dylan Walker sent to the bin in there previous game, but he was exonerated at the judicial after the game.

I'm finding decisions like the above, pretty concerning or at least confusing to say the least. Maybe the Warriors sponsor has decided to be the fall guy with his statements, probably could have handled the issue a wee bit more diplomatically, but they do appear to have a case..

The NZ warriors coach after the game, handled the press with the utmost of " professionalism "  in his response, maybe he's seen what's happened to ol mate Ricky Stuart when he let rip a few times  LOL

How ever, I do believe Andrew Webster asked the press gallery journalists to each chip in a few Hundy and he would have told them exactly what he thought   LOL. 

[noelm]

There is many "incidents" that could change a game, Harry Grant tackled Latrell Mitchel, Latrel got up swinging, luckily missed, but still knocked him over, nothing done, no penalty, nothing.

[XD351]

I was watching the circus that is nrl360 yesterday ( usually avoid this show like the plague but nothing else on tv) and they argued back and forth about the sponsor comments and the latrell incident for about 20 min-the only intelligent thing they said which I tend to agree with is that if it were any other player that did what latrell did they would have copped a penalty - if it were JWH that did it he would have been sent to the bin as well-not saying the refs are biased but players like JWH who have had more than a few run ins which the ref probably get treated a little differently to someone like latrell , Tedesco or the goat of refs friends Cameron smith . The sponsor comments were OTT and not warranted- if we let sponsors make stupid comments like that the game will slide down a slippery slope to oblivion. Sponsors have a financial interest in the game and that’s all -the refs do it because they love doing it and if they clearly showed any bias towards or against any team they would be dropped. Modern day refs have a way harder job to do than what the refs in the 70s had - basically look for offside , forward passes ,knock on and coat hanger tackles - that’s it ! Nowadays the list of things they need to look for is way longer , the game is faster, rules are different and changing all the time - I don’t envy the job they have to do ! When I was a kid playing union , league and football we were told to form up at the entrance to the field ( our home games ) and clap the opposition team and refs  on to and off the field at the end of the game - win, lose,or draw we did this and the captain had the job of thanking the refs for their time - don’t see that anymore !

Bring on Thursday night -big Nelson v Haas!

[noelm]

Yep tend to agree, certain players get certain treatment, that said, I kind of think the "old days" were better, the ref makes a decision there and then, it goes your teams way, it's the right decision, goes against your team, you hiss and boo! I know money is involved, and we have to get things right, but, the bunker reviewing everything, backwards, frontwards, slow, fast and everything else is just making the game reliant on technology. It's a simple game, keep it that way.

[XD351]

I think the game died a little the day they allowed gambling on it, a little more the day they televised  every game and a bit more when they started to use replays to make decisions - I agree 100% Noel - having the game controlled by one ref and a few touchies was how it was meant to be done - it was more organic and nowadays you may as well be watching a game created by a computer using CGI . I miss the days of sitting below the scoreboard at Leichhardt oval Cheering the Tigers and jeering any team who dared to set foot on our Hallowed turf 😂. 

[Rebel]

The problem with the Bunker is, it is at Redfern.

The NRL puts diffent people in it for different games.

Every body has their own interpretations of the rules.

No person in charge of the Bunker is the same.

Thats why when there is a complaint about the Bunker, the NRL puts somebody else in to cause more havoc.

We don't need a Bunker. We just need decent Ref's.

Cheers.

[XD351]

I would be perfectly happy to see the captains challenge abolished, the bunker abolished and any replays on the big screen or on tv shown at full speed only . I could put up with a couple of spotters in the grandstands looking for things like offside or being in front of the kicker when the ball is kicked and nothing more , they have radio contact with the ref and that is it - they can’t adjudicate on anything just advise the ref of what they have seen . It seems like every try they have to go back and review the last minute of play and it is killing the flow of the game - if the ref ,touchies and the above mentioned spotters didn’t see it then they get away with it .

I would like to see things like blatant head high and hip drop tackles punished with a send off and then sent to the match review as this will force the coaches to train this out of their game but there is a downside to this -players laying down to milk a penalty. My cure for this is if a player is on the ground apparently in pain and then  jumps back to their feet immediately after getting the Penalty they go to the bin for 5min , if they are genuinely hurt they go off for assessment and are replaced until they pass this assessment - a bit like a HIA .

Edited May 10, 2023 by XD351

[noelm]

Yes, faking injury is getting bad, I know it's "tactics" but the one I raised about the Dragons player was so blatant, he deserves 5 minutes in the bin, rolling around in agony until the whistle blows, then jumped up clapping and laughing, at a minimum, St George should give him a "week off" 

Edited May 10, 2023 by noelm

[Mike Sydney]

Bunker should go, challenges should go, not just in league but all sports, it creates a disparity between the grassroots game and the elite level. Like you go from playing rugby league on Saturdays with jus the ref and the spectators, to suddenly having to be part of an “entertainment product” .

I think challenges, bunkers , replays are for entertainment and sponsorship first, game outcome second. 

Ref just awarded a try? Let’s get everyone to stare at a KFC logo for two minutes. As for affecting game outcomes and this concept of “getting it right” that’s hot garbage. “Robberies” are ones remembered forever and talked about in folklore as the ones that got away. Correcting mistakes as they occur steals the game’s atmosphere, slows the game down and ultimately makes matches more forgettable. 

But then I do enjoy a good Hawkeye or hot spot…love the tech and super slow mo but it should be separated from the referees decision.

[XD351]

I think things like snicko,Hawkeye and hot spot helped the umpire rather than doing their job for them like the bunker does in league . With Cricket you can be given out because someone heard a noise and that noise may have been ball on bat , maybe  ball on pad or even bat on pad or shoe and sometimes a creaky bat - in the old days the umpire looked for any deviation in the travel of the ball as it went past the batsman which given the amount of spin or swing on the ball must have been bloody difficult to judge! If they were to keep a video ref they need to axe to the forest of things they can rule on - in my world it would be nothing more than the grounding of the ball and to check if the try scorer went into touch scoring the try and that’s it ! There would be no going back a couple of passes to check onside or for interference etc - if the on field officials didn’t see it so be it , no staring at a screen waiting for the decision as it would all be done be via radio to the on field ref and that decision is final! The video ref has to use the footage at full speed - this stuffing around looking at twenty different angles and multiple slow motion , stop frame, rewind then do it again replays at each angle is rubbish . I think the NRL are just trying to please the multitude of gambling agency’s and punters that want to gamble on the game -back in the old days if your team lost all that was at stake was a bit of pride and two points now there are a pile of dollars at stake. 

Edited May 11, 2023 by XD351

[BaitDropper]

I remember back in the early 90's, Camera's started to come into play and effect results in Union.

The most impacting one, was a final between Waikato and Otago, where a then All Black Prop was caught on Camera eye gouging the opposition fullback !!   Shock, horror,   How could this happen !!. It basically finished his career, In all honesty, it was pretty much par for the course before Camera days.  Then, rules started to change, when an opposition player decided to slow down play by laying over the player or the ball in offside position, he would get dealt too by some serious back rucking, then the game continued. Ref's allowed this practice, which I guess was pretty gruesome when you think about it now. I was on the receiving end on many occasions and admittingly on the giving end on others. But the game flowed, you made a choice, lay on the ball to slow down play, you got your shirt and a bit of scarring for your efforts.  Then, came Camera's, the non playing watchers were horrified at this brutal practice, so it was banned, it became an immediate penalty when a player killed the ball and if the ref didn't blow it up straight away and a player rucked some ones back, he was sin binned.  The up shot was, more whistle blowing, the game lost some flow and the defending team could then decide when they would give away a penalty, to effectively stop a try being scored. I'm not condoning some of the then practices that happened on the field back then, change was inevitable to happen as union moved towards professionalism, But Cameras changed the game of Union, which I'm sure was to take out some of the brutality to market the game to new audiences, but it's become now, a stop start technical rule orientated game, that even for me is very hard to watch.  I hope league take a good hard look at what's happening at the moment with there in consistent bunker and Ref decisions and try to keep the flow of the game going, or it will end up like union, where the spark and flow is now almost gone due to camera's and rules, causing to many stoppages and making the game harder to watch......

[XD351]

I wonder if Benny Elias might have thought twice about biting his own hand to get  Mario Fenech sin binned and get the penalty if they had all the cameras we have now back then - the look on Mario’s face as he walked from the field was priceless 😂😂 

[Mike Sydney]

@BaitDropper as a kid I grew up on the terraces at Lancaster park, one of my earliest rugby memories the 93 lions tour, in a rugby mad family, would go to all the NPC and Super 12 games but rugby lost me with the constant rule changes, stoppages and overly-long advantages.
It’s nigh on unwatchable for me now. I played league as a kid for Sydenham but was always a rugby head until it just got too boring around 2000

[BaitDropper]

I agree whole heartedly with you Mike. While I was living over there, I got pretty involved with it, followed a few friends with their careers thru to the big black jersey, but I do honestly have trouble watching it now. The chiefs are playing, probably the most watchable style at the minute, which I do try to follow. A bit scary now when you see sons of blokes I played with now starring in the super rugby.. 

It was a different Era Mike, you couldn't get away with near anything that happened both on and off the field now days. I could tell you about a certain AB front rower, that we had to sober up 24 hours before he had a medical to fly out to a British illes tour, but I best not mention names  LOL.. 

Is it all for the better or the worse all these changes !  probably a bit of both in all honesty..

[Rebel]

Broncos V Storm.

I have been to a lot of Rugby League & watched a heap.

The game last night was one of the worse refereed matches I have ever seen.

The bunker. Don't get me started. Hopeless again.

Congrats Storm.

Cheers.

[noelm]

There was some strange calls in that, but I think they were both ways, no idea what happened to Reynolds, it didn't seem too bad! This "hip drop" thing has got out of control now.

[BaitDropper]

What I'm confused about, is that to me, that so called Hip drop tackle last night, where the guy got binned, wasn't like any other I have seen this year. He got totally dragged by the big fella, had his feet taken off the ground by momentum and came down behind him and landed to the side of him..  Yes, the big fella got hurt, but to me, there was nothing in it.  It's getting to a stage, that players are going to be so scared of tackling someone, that has gone over the advantage line and got their noses in front of the defending player..

The other real confusing factor,  The ref was quizzed about the tackle, by a Brisbane  player, the Ref replied that the tackle was on report and that it would be reviewed !  So, why did he then get 10 minutes in the bin ?? ...   This was the same issue with the 2 Warrior players, both being Sin Binned, both on report, both cleared to play after the judiciary decided there was nothing to answer for.....      My opinion is, that yes sometimes, possible offenses have occurred, But it's the Ref's Sin Binning decisions that is amplifying the issue at the minute. We all except that sometimes the Ref's miss, or get a decision wrong sometimes, that's happened since Adam picked the apple, but it's the Ref's Sin Bin decisions, which has/is disadvantaging  teams during the game, To then, have the player be let off at the judiciary afterwards, with nothing to answer for.  

They need to clean this up, real quick in my opinion, as it is really starting to effect results, if the NRL can't see this, then expect a few more stake holders in teams to start calling them out..

[Rebel]

The Referee last night was useless & that is being nice.

The way he was sin binning players, we were lucky to have a game.

Cheers.