Debate: Should NRL points be scrapped for opening two rounds?
Starting the NRL season from scratch is controversial to say the least — but there is merit in totally disregarding the opening two rounds already played. Join the debate!
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Revealed: Why it is now safer for NRL to return
With the NRL optimistic the 2020 competition can recommence soon, the structure of the season has become a topic of fiery debate. One scenario being mooted is that the comp will restart from scratch, totally disregarding the two rounds already played. Reporters CHRIS HONNERY and NICK WALSHAW consider whether wiping the slate clean is the way to go.
FOR: COMPETITION SHOULD BE LEVEL PLAYING FIELD
If we’re considering a whole new format of the game, we have to start from scratch.
And sorry Broncos fans, but that means scrapping the competition points from the opening two rounds.
Hear me out. It doesn’t make sense to keep the current ladder the way it is if we’re pitting different teams against each other and forcing clubs such as the Titans to start well behind the eight-ball.
Think about it. Under this proposed two-conference system, the Titans would never have played Parramatta.
Which means their 42-point deficit from their second-round loss would never have happened.
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No other team in their conference would have to face the red-hot form of Mitchell Moses, Clint Gutherson and Maika Sivo — so why should the Titans remain punished for their past mistakes?
Likewise, the Broncos would never have played the Rabbitohs. Why would it be fair to give them an extra leg up, when a barnstorming Jason Taumalolo could have beaten them as well?
As tough as it is to tell players their past performances count for nothing, rugby league should always be a level playing field.
The world today is nothing like the world a fortnight ago.
If the NRL resumes sometime this year, it will be nothing like the NRL a fortnight ago.
Why should we hold on to past results when everything has changed since then?
— Chris Honnery
AGAINST: TRY TELLING KINGY IT DOESN’T MATTER
So you reckon the 2020 NRL season thus far should be scrapped? Sweet.
Go tell Cameron King.
You remember Kingy, right? That workaholic No.9 who, after being punted by Parramatta in 2018, and then playing second-division in England, was set to be resurrected with the Cronulla Sharks in 2020.
Here, truly, was the feel-good yarn of a fella who had overcome axings, shoulder reconstructions, busted ACLs — all of it.
But then, during a Port Moresby trial, his ACL went. Again.
A truth which now leaves the 29-year-old once more fighting for his future.
So who wants to be the one who tells Kingy how nothing that’s happened in the NRL this year matters?
Or maybe you tell Penrith No.7 Nathan Cleary, who not only orchestrated that season-opening upset over reigning premier Roosters, but doubled down against St George Illawarra when everyone still considered his team battlers.
Maybe you tell Parramatta, right now atop the table and chasing that first premiership since Crocodile Dundee was a thing.
Or Ricky Stuart and Craig Bellamy, whose sides sit unbeaten in third and fourth respectively.
Certainly that last option would be an easy way to cut costs inside NRL HQ, given the staffers who deliver said message will be rendered white chalk outlines.
Which isn’t to say rugby league doesn’t need creativity right now. It does.
It’s getting plenty of offers too in the shape of NRL Island, three-game grand finals, even Jason Taumalolo in — gasp — a Queensland jersey. But scrapping the NRL year thus far?
No, it matters.
The highlights, the heartache, all of it.
Just ask Kingy.
— Nick Walshaw
Originally published as Debate: Should NRL points be scrapped for opening two rounds?