Is it even the same sport?

[Dunbar]

8 minutes ago, ATLANTISMAN said:

A recent survey of teenagers in New Zealand listed their Top 3 sports as.

NRL

NBA

English Premiership Soccer 

 

 

 

Thanks

[unapologetic pedant]

3 hours ago, corvusxiii said:

Struggling on the 'earning the right' thing. To me it's earning the right to be entertaining!?! There's an optimum point of course but this isn't it for me.

Entertaining play should earn the right to play the ball quickly. Dull play should allow the defence to slow the ruck.

What constitutes entertainment is of course subjective.

[unapologetic pedant]

On 31/07/2024 at 17:08, graveyard johnny said:

yesterday I watched last weekends broncos v bulldogs game on catch up - a crowd of over 40,000 - fantastic coverage from fox sports - end to end non stop action - full of momentum, intensity  and breathtaking skills and action - hardly noticed the bunker and hardly noticed the ref either everything RL  should be 

compare that to the fayre been served up by sky/bbc and the SL - errors - stoppages - penalties - more stoppages -more pedantic penalties - no momentum endless boring dull video ref decisions that see seasons come and seasons go before they decide on the outcome

was hard to compare the NRL  game as even the same sport as SL! - Whats gone wrong with our version?

Shouldn't underestimate the influence of off-field ingredients on perception. Stadium, crowd, commentary.

The same game played in front of 10k at Leichhardt Oval probably wouldn't have popped so many corks.

The same game with Dave Woods and Terry O'Conner on commentary wouldn't have popped anyone's cork.

[corvusxiii]

15 minutes ago, unapologetic pedant said:

Entertaining play should earn the right to play the ball quickly. Dull play should allow the defence to slow the ruck.

What constitutes entertainment is of course subjective.

I'm thinking 'laying on' is much easier than being entertaining. That's why a team might be penalised for 'laying on' rather than being entertaining. 

Ok, I half get your point but of all the things a team must achieve to entertain the paying public it isn't negating the tedious ugly borefest that is laying on. All that effort and potential game play and entertainment lost to ... something that adds nothing to the spectacle. 

And no, I dont find slow PTBs entertaining but that's just me of course. 

 

[JohnM]

11 hours ago, unapologetic pedant said:

Shouldn't underestimate the influence of off-field ingredients on perception. Stadium, crowd, commentary.

The same game played in front of 10k at Leichhardt Oval probably wouldn't have popped so many corks.

The same game with Dave Woods and Terry O'Conner on commentary wouldn't have popped anyone's cork.

Agree:Just watching Melbourne Vs St George and that illustrates the truth of what you say.

Exciting game

Excited crowd

Exciting commentary.

[dkw]

Call me crazy but I much prefer a game like the wire v KR one and this Storm v Dragins one to the you score/we score 70+ point nonsense where defences just dont bother.

[The Rocket]

1 hour ago, JohnM said:

Agree:Just watching Melbourne Vs St George and that illustrates the truth of what you say.

Exciting game

Excited crowd

Exciting commentary.

And what a result. 

Got three tickets for the hill at Kogarah for my sons and I for next Saturday night`s game. For what could have been a 70/30 Bulldogs crowd if we had been flogged in Melbourne, I`m thinking it now it might be the other way around. We`re in the eight, bloody fantastic.

Edited August 3 by The Rocket

[Pulga]

Rugby League in England is stuck in the 90s.

Look at the social media output of the NRL compared to SL. It's night and day. The commercial aspect is infinitely better in the NRL. It has nothing to do with the rank of popularity of the game. 

Also P&R has seen a gradual degradation of quality. Why strive to win when you can just survive by being the second worst team in SL? Why pay for the best players when decent will do? 

[dkw]

47 minutes ago, Pulga said:

Rugby League in England is stuck in the 90s.

Look at the social media output of the NRL compared to SL. It's night and day. The commercial aspect is infinitely better in the NRL. It has nothing to do with the rank of popularity of the game. 

Also P&R has seen a gradual degradation of quality. Why strive to win when you can just survive by being the second worst team in SL? Why pay for the best players when decent will do? 

So it's not as good as NRL and P&R is a problem.....OK, maybe we should copy the NRL's P&R......oh wait.

[johnh1]

1 hour ago, Pulga said:

Rugby League in England is stuck in the 90s.

Look at the social media output of the NRL compared to SL. It's night and day. The commercial aspect is infinitely better in the NRL. It has nothing to do with the rank of popularity of the game. 

Also P&R has seen a gradual degradation of quality. Why strive to win when you can just survive by being the second worst team in SL? Why pay for the best players when decent will do? 

Of course it has something to do with the 'rank of popularity of the game'. RL is the national sport in Australia. Here, we only get any column inches in the newspapers when there is something bad to report.

And in the NRL, you can survive by being the worst team in the competition.

 

[bobbruce]

6 hours ago, Pulga said:

Rugby League in England is stuck in the 90s.

Look at the social media output of the NRL compared to SL. It's night and day. The commercial aspect is infinitely better in the NRL. It has nothing to do with the rank of popularity of the game. 

Also P&R has seen a gradual degradation of quality. Why strive to win when you can just survive by being the second worst team in SL? Why pay for the best players when decent will do? 

This doesn’t make any sense if under P&R you only strive to be the second worse team. That same thinking would mean without P&R teams at the bottom don’t have to strive for anything. 

[JT RL]

I don’t think it helps TV presentation that pretty much the only sound & atmosphere that the viewer can hear is the inane shouting from the referee … 

[Pulga]

11 hours ago, johnh1 said:

Of course it has something to do with the 'rank of popularity of the game'. RL is the national sport in Australia. Here, we only get any column inches in the newspapers when there is something bad to report.

And in the NRL, you can survive by being the worst team in the competition.

 

It absolutely doesn't. Australia has 1/3rd the population and AFL is much, much bigger than you probably realise. One of the highest attended sports on earth. RL is not the national sport either. 

It's this attitude of "why try" when we're up against soccer that is a major problem too.

[Pulga]

7 hours ago, bobbruce said:

This doesn’t make any sense if under P&R you only strive to be the second worse team. That same thinking would mean without P&R teams at the bottom don’t have to strive for anything. 

This is the English attitude and the majority of the problem.

In the NRL you have a minimum spend unlike SL where being stingy and aiming for second worst is a genuine tactic.

[Sports Prophet]

15 hours ago, Pulga said:

.

… unlike SL where being stingy and aiming for second worst is a genuine tactic.

Or even worse, where finishing last is accepted before the season starts and the club does nothing at all to become at least one better.

[Dunbar]

18 hours ago, Pulga said:

This is the English attitude and the majority of the problem.

In the NRL you have a minimum spend unlike SL where being stingy and aiming for second worst is a genuine tactic.

You haven't answered his underlying question though.

If your assertion is that you can just survive by being the second worst team in SL and this somehow drives a lack of ambition then a league without any relegation at all would logically have excatly this same problem only magnified.

You can't just brush it off with 'it's an attitude thing'.

[dkw]

I've just watched the weekend highlights from the NRL, some of the defence and "tackles" were abysmal, amateur sides would be embarrassed. It seems they've given up on defence down under.

[MZH]

I've seen some excellent NRL games this year, but I've also seen some awful ones. One thing I have noticed is that the defending over there is the worst I can remember. 60+ point games are commonplace, and it's not just because of the great attack on display. Some people will see that as a good thing. I prefer to see tries scored through a bit of brilliance.

[Wakefield Ram]

1 hour ago, MZH said:

I've seen some excellent NRL games this year, but I've also seen some awful ones. One thing I have noticed is that the defending over there is the worst I can remember. 60+ point games are commonplace, and it's not just because of the great attack on display. Some people will see that as a good thing. I prefer to see tries scored through a bit of brilliance.

It's just a much quicker game, so defences less time to set, hence more open play and tries. 

[Anita Bath]

4 hours ago, dkw said:

I've just watched the weekend highlights from the NRL, some of the defence and "tackles" were abysmal, amateur sides would be embarrassed. It seems they've given up on defence down under.

You must stop watching the Broncos

[dkw]

10 hours ago, Wakefield Ram said:

It's just a much quicker game, so defences less time to set, hence more open play and tries. 

Its too quick for defences, which ruins games for me. Loads of 6 agains for offside/markers not square, tacklers not getting set so missing loads of tackles etc. Ironically its down to them not having to play the ball correctly, just throwing it through there legs. 

Edited August 6 by dkw

[MZH]

Another week another embarrassing defensive performance in the NRL 

[Dunbar]

On 09/08/2024 at 09:31, MZH said:

Another week another embarrassing defensive performance in the NRL 

Average aggregate score this weekend over 55 points per game.

Whether it is poor defence, the speed of the game favouring the attack (as well as awful play the balls being let go), or the sanitising of the game allowing teams to stack attacking players... the sport has definitely evolved into a points fest.

Edited August 12 by Dunbar

[DavidM]

Speed is fine , keeping players apart is fine , player welfare is admirable , but they’ve reduced the tolerance of everything to ridiculous levels so officiating is smothering with restarts and penalties in to many games and everything is loaded to the team in possession . If you have the ball basically you get told not to do it again or do it better next time , or do what you like . The play the balls are now like SL a few years back . Don’t take out the marker - do it again  . Don’t move off the  mark , throw yourself down etc etc. Some laws matter more than others . The video ref also has to much involvement and players actions and reactions are becoming like football because it gets rewarded . I hate the way nothing happens but a player stays down or holds his chin or face and then a delayed penalty comes or the VR comes in and works back from an injury because it spooks them so much .Some high contact pens are laughable really .i love the NRL but I feel they’re losing a balance and an empathy with the game and spectacle a bit much with where theyve gone with officiating rules and scrutiny , but that’s just me . They need to pair the VR right back to ingoal things and only interfere with foul play if it’s a card , not a report . And refs need to give more latitude , their calls like exit set pens lead to points a lot . Let the players play , I’d say a big majority of calls have zero impact on the game 

Edited August 12 by DavidM