NRL rule changes: The 22 tweaks that would improve rugby league

We asked our readers to give their take on the 22 things PAUL CRAWLEY wants to see in the NRL, check out Paul’s full list and have your say.

Both Allan Langer and Wayne Bennett are contenders to be the next rugby league ‘Immortal’. Picture: Jono Searle

Now the NRL and players have finally made peace over the collective bargaining agreement, it’s time to put the focus back on fixing other areas of the game that have been put on the backburner for too long.

Paul Crawley identifies 22 ways to make the greatest game of all even greater.

1: BRING FORWARD KICK OFF TIMES TO 7.20PM ON THURSDAY AND 7.30 FOR THE SECOND GAME ON FRIDAY.

The majority of fans just don’t want to wait until 7.50pm on a Thursday and 8pm on a Friday to get the prime time game started.

Surely the NRL can work with TV broadcasters to bring the kick off forward on each night by 30 minutes. It would be more family friendly for those going to the game and just as importantly getting home, as well as those watching on TV. It would mean bringing forward the 6pm Friday night game to a 5.30 start. But would most fans rather the earlier start, or later finish?

2: CUT SIN BIN FROM 10 TO 5 MINUTES, OR ALLOW TEAMS A SUBSTITUTE REPLACEMENT.

This season there has been more sin bins per game since 1995. So it is officially a bigger issue now than at any previous time of the NRL era.

And while everyone understands the NRL needs to do all it can to reduce concussion injuries, the current 10 minute sin bin for what are often very minor or accidental incidents can absolutely destroy a team’s chances in that period.

One option would be to reduce the sin bin from 10 to 5 minutes so it doesn’t have such a dramatic impact on the result. Alternatively, the NRL could look at a system that allows a substitute for all offences barring the obvious send offs. The player responsible for the illegal tackle would still face the consequences when it comes to potential suspensions/charges, but it won’t ruin the contest for the rest of the players and the fans.

3: BRING BACK MONDAY NIGHT FOOTY?

Stick with three games on a Saturday, or get an extra night of action with a return of Monday Night Footy? It would be a nightmare for the governing body coming up with a fair draw to accommodate the minimum five-day turnarounds if the NRL was played over five days. But I know by the end of the third game on a Saturday it often becomes an absolute slog just to get through it.

4: CHANGE GRAND FINAL STARTING TIME?

We saw the record 4 million plus TV ratings for the Matildas’ 5pm kick off last weekend. On that note we ran a fan poll last year where 80 per cent voted in favour of a return to the afternoon NRL grand final. At the moment the 7.30pm kick off is driven by Channel 9 and advertisers. But fans are adamant it’s just too late on a Sunday night, even allowing for the Monday public holiday. Take into account in New Zealand that’s a further two hour delay. It just doesn’t give fans time to soak up the post-match celebrations and analysis, especially for the younger and older audience.

5: INTRODUCE AN END-OF-SEASON TRADE WINDOW

This is an absolute no-brainer. As it is, the endless cycle of player-trade talk frustrates and alienates so many fans. But it could be significantly reduced with an end-of-season trade period to run in conjunction with a mid-season transfer window. While you will never completely stop potential deals being discussed behind closed doors during the season, in the AFL it also creates huge postseason interest when there are no matches being played, while driving extra media content/fan interest.

6: LET THE BUNKER RULE ON FORWARD PASSES IN TRY SCORING SITUATIONS

You certainly don’t want the Bunker stopping play to rule on every contentious pass in the run of a game. But when it comes to try scoring situations, it’s madness the Bunker is prevented from ruling on howlers when a potential try is already being reviewed. Until the NRL introduces forward pass technology (which should have arrived years ago) at least this could eliminate obvious blunders like the Jack Wighton forward pass that sunk the Dragons two rounds back. Surely we shouldn’t have to wait until Monday afternoon for NRL head of football Graham Annesley to confirm what everyone watching the game has already spotted.

7: INTRODUCE OFFSIDE TECHNOLOGY LIKE VAR IN FOOTBALL

If it’s good enough for the major football leagues throughout Europe and the FIFA Men and Women’s World Cup, what’s stopping the NRL from using VAR technology to rule on offside plays? This technology has been available for years but for some reason the NRL has ignored it. While the VAR is by no means foolproof, at least having a line to mark onside/offside running across the field would give fans a chance to see what the Bunker is actually ruling on. We had the incident last weekend when the Rabbitohs players looked offside leading up to a crucial try off a bomb that again cruelled the Dragons. While the NRL later came out with another camera angle that showed it was not as clear-cut as the initial high shot suggested, having everyone on the same page from the get-go would eliminate a lot of controversy.

8: MAKE PLAYER SALARIES PUBLIC

They do it in the major American sports where the salaries of all players are published down to the last cent. Here we’ve been conned into thinking it’s an invasion of privacy. Yet police and ambulance officers, nurses, teachers, even the Prime Minister, all have to deal with their salaries being on public record. The fact is there is just so much mistrust when it comes to the salary cap it needs to be transparent so fans and rival clubs don’t feel cheated. This is not just about putting the blowtorch on the best/rich clubs. It would also make struggling teams more accountable for money spent/wasted.

9: INTRODUCE A STANDALONE ORIGIN/PACIFIC NATIONS TESTS PERIOD

For years Wayne Bennett has pushed for an Origin standalone period where the NRL comp would be halted for three weeks during which time you could have three Origins for men and women, a Pacific Nations tournament and put more focus on promoting the underage interstate games. We see every year the impact Origin has on clubs with significant representation. Putting the NRL comp on hold during this period would certainly make it fairer on all.

10: MAKE NRLW ORIGIN SERIES 3 GAMES?

This is another slam dunk decision after seeing this year’s Women’s Origin series finish 1-all. While a record crowd of more than 18,000 turned up at Queensland Country Bank Stadium to be part of the historic second match won by NSW (with a penalty try in the final minute), it was still weird watching the Maroons celebrate on the back of their eight-point win in the opening game.

11: A WOMEN’S WORLD CLUB CHALLENGE BETWEEN NRLW AND UK WOMEN’S SUPER LEAGUE CHAMPS

On the back of the success of the Women’s FIFA World Cup tournament, the NRL needs to do all it can to make sure women’s rugby league maintains its momentum. They could do worse than match the NRLW champs against the Women’s Super League winners in a World Club Challenge playoff.

12: INTRODUCE A FINALS WILDCARD

This has been spoken about previously but received mixed support. Yet the NBA has had massive success with its Play-In Tournament. It would certainly spark a lot of interest all the way to the final round of the regular season for teams down the bottom half of the ladder. If it was in place now 14 teams would still be alive with three rounds to play. How it could work is to have the top six teams go through to the finals automatically. Meanwhile, on a rest weekend for those teams the sides ranked 7 to 10 could battle it out for the final two spots. Team 7 plays team 10 and 8 plays 9. As the NRL ladder stands at the moment that would have the Knights playing the Eels and the Rabbitohs playing the Cowboys for a place in the finals.

13: WHERE DO YOU WANT NRL’S 18TH TEAM BASED

It’s not a matter of if but when the NRL introduces an 18th team on the back of the Dolphins’ success. I still worry if the game has enough talent to accommodate another team if it doesn’t include the relocation of one of the 9 Sydney based clubs. But the NRL appears to have no appetite for that. So that being the case Perth or a Pasifika team based out of PNG appear the favourites.

14: INTRODUCE A NATIONAL DRAFT FOR JUNIOR TALENT

Would work perfectly with an end-of-season trade period like they do in AFL. It would also stop all the powerful clubs getting first crack at the top junior talent, with bottom placed teams getting the best draft choices, while giving fans of the struggling clubs a lot more reason to hope.

15: HARSHER PENALTIES FOR PLAYERS GETTING IN THE REFEREE’S FACE

What happens at the top level of the game always filters down to the juniors. And the constant questioning of decisions and increasing lack of respect being shown to the match officials is really getting out of hand. The way to stop it is by introducing tougher and more consistent penalties.

16: BRING BACK BENEFIT OF DOUBT FOR TRIES WITH ADVANTAGE GOING TO ATTACKING TEAMS

It makes no sense getting a referee on the field to guess a decision by sending it up as either a ‘try’ or ‘no try’ when that official doesn’t have an unobstructed view of the play. Surely in those instances it should go back to the old benefit of the doubt rule where the advantage goes to the attacking team, rather than the Bunker being forced to find sufficient evidence to overturn on field guesswork.

17: WHO SHOULD BE THE NEXT IMMORTAL?

With talk two more Immortals will be named in the not too distant future, you could make a case for every person on this list. What I can’t understand for the life of me is why Allan Langer doesn’t get more support given his dominance during the 1990s. In a team of champions that won four premierships over seven seasons (including the 1997 Super League title) Langer was the standout player of the decade. Yet Alf rarely gets mentioned in this debate. Why? Is it because he doesn’t commentate on TV, and is best known these days for running the water bottle for the Broncos? The rules also need to change so Wayne Bennett can at least be considered as the first coach inducted.

18: TELEVISE THE UNDER U21 JERSEY FLEGG COMPETITION

There is such a jam-packed TV schedule with the NRL, NRLW as well as some NSW Cup matches, but I’d still love to see the under 21s back on the box. It’s just a shame the old under 20s national competition fell by the wayside because it gave diehards a great chance to see the next generation emerging.

19: INTRODUCE CHALLENGE CUP-STYLE KNOCKOUT TOURNAMENT FOR NSW AND QLD CUP COMPETITIONS

This idea is not just about creating more interest in the NRL, but injecting some life back into struggling country and regional areas. This year the Challenge Cup started out with 71 teams from the amateurs all the way up to the top Super League clubs, culminating with former Rooster Lachlan Lam leading the Leigh Leopards to a famous victory at Wembley. If we did it here it could incorporate NSW and Queensland Cup as well as any team from the country and regional competitions throughout the nation.

20: NRL’S FASTEST MAN MATCH RACE ON GRAND FINAL DAY

Who wouldn’t love to see the NRL’s fastest men in a fair dinkum match race over 100m on grand final day? Of course you’d have to take out players participating in the main event. But between the likes of Reece Walsh, Jason Saab, Hamiso Tabuai-Fidow, Josh Addo-Carr, Xavier Coates, Alofiana Khan-Pereira, Luke Metcalf and Tolutau Koula it would be must-watch. You could offer up a significant financial incentive given sponsors would jump over each other to get on board.

21: SHOULD THE SEA EAGLES AND EELS BE RETROSPECTIVELY AWARDED 2007 AND 2009 PREMIERSHIPS?

We saw the Storm put more than a few noses out of joint recently when they decided to celebrate their stripped titles for the grand final wins of 2007 and 2009. But what would Melbourne think if the NRL was to go back and retrospectively award those titles to the teams who lost out due to the Storm’s systematic salary cap cheating? That would mean the Sea Eagles would become the 2007 premiers, and the Eels in 2009. Imagine that, finally Parramatta wins another premiership.

22: WHICH NRL RULE WOULD YOU CHANGE?

You can take your pick here but from my point of view the six-again restart was the best rule change in a long, long time. Although you can slowly see teams are starting to again manipulate more and more wrestling tactics back into the game.

Originally published as NRL rule changes: The 22 tweaks that would improve rugby league