Garreth Carvell has called for a reduction in the number of matches played in a season to improve player welfare and the overall quality of the game.
The former Great Britain international forward has returned to the Rugby League Players’ Association in what is now a full-time role, giving the sport a permanent union representative for the first time.
This has been achieved with the help of RFL funding and Carvell says that his appointment demonstrates that the governing body is keen to give players more say by allowing him to spend more time visiting clubs and canvassing opinion.
One of Carvell’s concerns is that players are playing too many matches. He believes that having fewer games would not only reduce injuries but make the whole product better too.
“A big thing of mine is having fewer games of higher quality, with more of the best line-ups playing,” he told League Express.
“The clubs see that they make money from gates and rely heavily on it. But in my view that’s a little short-sighted.
“Having fewer games of a higher quality would mean there’s more interest from sponsors and from TV. It’s an idea.”
For that to be considered, Carvell believes there needs to be a rebalancing of power, away from the clubs with more influence for the players.
“We want the power to be even,” he said.
“In this country the power is with the clubs rather than us or the RFL.
“That could be redistributed a bit more evenly for the good of the game. It’s a work in progress.”
The start of the new season has seen an intense focus on the clampdown on foul play, especially involving the head, and harsher punishments in terms of both cards and suspensions for offences.
Despite the frustrations several players have aired publicly, Carvell is happy generally with the moves as long as they remain consistent.
However, he is keen to get a stronger gauge of players’ views to bring to the Laws Committee in future, to ensure their ideas play a central role in decision-making.
“There is a lot of emphasis around concussions and head knocks and foul play,” said Carvell.
“That was always going to be dealt with quite harshly to eradicate it from the game.
“Players going on social media and asking the RFL questions, I’m not sure that’s the right way to go. We’ve got me in place now at the GMB to do that for them.
“I understand the frustration and I’d probably have been in the same position as a player.
“But every single season Paul Cullen speaks with every single club, explains the new rules, explains the bans and what they’re really clamping down on.
“There’s no excuse, everyone knows exactly what the RFL wants and what referees are looking at. That gets explained.
“The whole point of being quite harsh is to try and eradicate those things from the game, so they’ve got to stay strong with it.
“(This year) the Laws Committee met before I joined it in January, but the normal process is that I’ll speak with players and representatives of the playing groups, then I’ll attend the Laws’ Committee and put the players’ point of view across, so then they’re making informed decisions.”
Carvell does have sympathy when it comes to the length of some suspensions, citing Luke Gale’s five-match ban as an example of a punishment that could be detrimental to the sport in keeping one of its stars off the field for a significant time.
He said: “We want to see the best players playing. I’d use the example of Luke Gale and the suspension he received, I’m not sure that was justified.
“But it’s up to the disciplinary to deal with that and explain it. There are rules in place with certain sanctions.”
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