NRL season 2015: Matthew Johns call for interchange shake-up to make the game better and safer

The NRL vowed to make rugby league safer in the wake of the terrible injury to Alex McKinnon — now it is time for them to come good on the promise.

Ahead of next week’s coaches conference that will be followed by a two-day rules committee summit in Sydney, Matty Johns has called on the NRL to make dramatic changes to the interchange rules in 2015.

Johns believes the current limit of 10 interchanges should be cut back to six — and once a player leaves the field he should not be allowed to return.

Johns said this would help rid the game of ugly wresting tactics and make it more entertaining for fans.

The Roosters watch a wrestling drill during training.

“Everyone is talking about how do we get the wrestle out of the game,” Johns said.

“My point is this; if you reduce the interchange to six and you have a rule where once you leave the field you can’t return, what will happen is players will be far less enticed to be running in from 15 metres to help make a four or five man tackle.

“They will naturally start conserving energy. You will start seeing fewer people in the tackle.

“And I will tell you another thing it does. The bigger blokes might turn their noses up at it but if we bring the interchange down to six, on Dally M Medal night all the best players will be in line and that is what we want.

“The cream will rise to the top. It will be Thurston, Daly Cherry-Evans, Kieran Foran. You loosen the game up and the stars start to shine again.”

I’M THE MAN TO FIX THE NRL: FITZGERALD

REYNOLDS TO MISS ALL STARS AND NINES

George Burgess’s chicken wing tackle on Steve Matai caused outrage last season.

Regarded as one of the game’s smartest thinkers, Johns called for these changes earlier this year immediately after Alex McKinnon suffered his shocking injury.

At the time the argument against his idea was that changes couldn’t occur mid-season.

But with all 16 NRL coaches invited to next week’s conference, now is the perfect time to again raise the interchange debate.

The topic of player safety was a huge issue throughout the 2014 season but in reality very little has changed.

The NRL promised tougher penalties on all lifting tackles, but inconsistent punishments have since dominated discussions.

But Johns’ believes the NRL has an obligation now to do what is right, regardless of how hard some coaches might complain.

MCKINNON’S SILVER LINING IN TOUGH TIMES

Alex McKinnon’s injury should be a cause for change in rugby league.

As Johns explained: “In my opinion the blokes running the game have got to make a decision which they believe will be for the betterment of the game.

“Then if they have to put up with three months of whinging from the coaches so be it.

“For self interest we will have coaches out there saying what about the welfare of the players?

“I’m telling you right now, I reckon there are more explosive injuries out of players being fresh and getting numbers into tackles and wrestling than there will be through fatigue injuries.

“They always wheel the doctors out and they say, the players are going to dehydrate.

“These players are full-time professionals. They are running water on all the time.”

Matthew Johns is calling for fewer numbers on the interchange.

And as for the spectacle, Johns said: “If you look back at those grand finals in the early 1990s, the fatigue factor in the last 25 minutes opens the game up unbelievably.

“Combined with that there were no video refs back then so there were far less stoppages in the game.

“Although the game in some ways is quicker now in a lot of other ways it has slowed up because of the ability of teams to control the ruck combined with the fact there are far more stoppages.

“Yet we still have the interchange at 10.”

Johns says the changes would reduce the chances of injury.

On the agenda next week is everything from referees to rule interpretations along issues relating to the judiciary and the possibility of returning to one referee.

That will be followed by a two-day meeting of the NRL Rules Committee which includes the likes of Wayne Bennett, Ivan Cleary, Trent Robinson, Darren Lockyer and John Lang.

The recent Four Nations tournament has had many discussing the merits of a return to one referee.

But Johns said cutting back on the interchange would have the biggest and best impact — and it’s not too late to make the changes ahead of next season.

“There are so many of these nasty, explosive injuries these days,” he said.

“The way to fix that is reduce the interchange. The big blokes will realise once they know they are not coming back on, they will conserve their energy and it will make it more of a level playing field.”

Originally published as NRL season 2015: Matthew Johns call for interchange shake-up to make the game better and safer