Opinion: Why Magic Round ruined by edicts from the top

“He thinks it’s his way or the highway... I say give the man a car and direct him to the highway and bring our game back to what it was - Magic.”

View from the stands of the NRL Magic Round at Suncorp Stadium. Photo: AAP/Steve Pohlner.

We have witnessed round 10 of the NRL that was promoted for weeks prior that it was to be called the Magic Round.

Part of this reasoning was that the entire round was to be played at Brisbane‘s Suncorp Stadium and featured all 16 teams.

It was going to be a smorgasbord of Rugby League highlighting how far the game has come particularly after the covid19 situation.

Instead the weekend was ruined by an edict from the top management of the NRL to crack down on any tackle that was considered by the referees to be high.

Of course when instructions like that are handed down they are open to abuse and that was the case big time, with sinbins and send offs making the headlines.

The intent of the round of course was show the strides that the game has taken under the new stewardship of Chairman Peter V‘landys (2019) and CEO Andrew Abdo (2020) on behalf of the Australian Rugby League Commission, which is based in Sydney NSW.

The Chairman has a background in Thoroughbred Horse Racing and is currently the CEO and board member of Racing NSW whilst the CEO is a chartered Accountant from South Africa, so how does this background fit into Rugby League?

The chairman like many of us tragics played the game as kids but never rose to any higher level in the sport.

It makes one ask why was the stewardship of the game given to this pair?

The Chairman has been directly involved in many, many rule changes that have left us supporters shaking our heads.

Many of the changes have been trumpeted as being for player safety, which is good, also to speed the game up not that it was ever considered to be slow.

However there is a negative side to these changes.

Rugby League is a collision sport not just a contact sport and this has been forgotten in the rush to change rules.

Our game has been played since 1908, that was 113 years ago, it was designed over the early days to be a simply ruled sport for the masses but that has changed dramatically under the chairs top office decisions.

Without getting into all of the rule changes but taking an overall look “ seeing the wood for the trees ” approach what do we have now?

We have a competition that is split with four teams winning week after week with the other 12 being cannon fodder for the top 4.

Back to the Magic Round have a look at the scores.

There were 294 points scored against and 128 points for this makes an unenviable difference of 166 or in other terms close to 130% margin.

We won’t get into the sin binning and send off facts brought about by the edict from the chair for referees to crack down on head high tackles, the sin binning count was massive.

The game has gone from a true collision sport to just about being a game of touch footie. Magic Round it was not!

This has prompted past champion league players to condemn the rapid change in the game let alone the fact that the supporters can’t understand what a lot of penalties are for because we are not told.

In one game the penalty count was so high that it made the team affected by the count tackle shy.

We have lost the plot but the Chairman is not the slightest bit concerned as he is looking after the game’s future.

Wow, we have a Messiah running the game now who believes that it’s his way or the highway.

I say give the man a car and direct him to the highway and bring our game back to what it was... Magic.

Robert Henderson, Sharon