Brutal toll: Graham Annesley on how NRL tries to strike right balance
Phil “Buzz” Rothfield speaks with the NRL’s head of football Graham Annesley as part of a special investigation into the brutal physicality of the NRL.
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The brutal physicality of the NRL is under question after the retirement of Greg Inglis and serious injuries to 64 players in five rounds.
Players are 20kg to 30kg heavier than yesteryear and average collision intensity is steadily increasing as sophisticated sports science turns players into battering rams.
Phil “Buzz” Rothfield spoke with the NRL’s head of football Graham Annesley as part of a special investigation.
BUZZ: Is size and power of players something the game needs to look at?
ANNESLEY: One of the game’s Strategic Plan objectives is to ensure it delivers continuous free-flowing football that equally rewards power and skill. The competition committee regularly meets with this as a guiding principle to review emerging trends in the game and make recommendations to the Commission as required.
To ensure the committee is as informed as possible, the game closely monitors a range of statistics year on year, including power indicators such as the speed of the game and intensity of collisions. This has led to past decisions around reducing interchange and amendments to the Laws of the Game that relate to improved player safety.
It is always our goal to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to trends.
BUZZ: Are we losing juniors to other sports because of the gladiatorial nature of our game?
ANNESLEY: There has been an enormous amount of work and change implemented in this area over a long period. The introduction of modified versions of the game, safety codes, and even non-contact participation through touch football are all intended to ensure anyone, male or female, can participate safely regardless of age, physical stature, or level of expertise.
The game has never been safer at the junior level and we have also seen some encouraging growth in participation across the various forms of the game.
BUZZ: Should or when will the interchange be reduced to bring back more fatigue?
ANNESLEY: Whether interchange should be further reduced will be discussed at a mid-season meeting of the Competition Committee. It will assess the impact of recent changes intended to minimise stoppages, increase the amount of time the ball is in play and escalate fatigue levels, which has been statistically proven to reduce the intensity of collisions. We have already seen significantly less stoppages and an increase in ball-in-play time this season.
LISTEN! Matty Johns reveals his favourite Inglis memories, the impact of retirement on a player and dissects the five-eighths who are setting the competition alight. Paul Kent and James Hooper join Matty for Australia’s No.1 sports podcast.
BUZZ: What about even reducing the teams to 12 players?
ANNESLEY: Suggestions like this would be a major change to the 110-year history of the game, but we can’t just close our minds to any new innovation to improve the attractiveness of the game and make it safer to play.
There is nothing as dramatic as this on the agenda, nor is there expected to be any similar proposal under consideration in the immediate future. However, in general terms we have to be open to innovation and constantly review whether the other more traditional levers we have at our disposal are delivering the required outcome.
Originally published as Brutal toll: Graham Annesley on how NRL tries to strike right balance
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