The Front Row: Penalties ruin Storm-Sharks NRL match
WHO won that Storm-Sharks game? I dozed off after penalty number 28. If that’s rugby league, give me World Series Scrabble, writes Mike Colman.
Opinion
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WHO won that Storm-Sharks game? I dozed off after penalty number 28.
If that’s rugby league, give me World Series Scrabble.
Seriously, given that miserable spectacle on Friday night, us spectators are in for a long, frustrating season.
Remember when we used to get excited about witnessing some amazing feat of skill or athleticism that we’d never seen before?
It might have been a winger somehow getting the ball down just inside the corner flag while the rest of his body was in mid-air over the sidelines.
It could have been a miraculous no-look flick pass or banana kick that seemed to defy the laws of physics as it led to a try.
“Wow,” we’d say, our eyes like saucers. “That’s a first.”
Nothing like that last weekend.
The only time we could say, “Gosh, I’ve never seen that before” was when Cameron Smith got sent to the sin-bin.
Next they’ll be giving out a special Dally M Award to the referee who blows the most penalties in a game.
When Wayne Bennett said that the refs were blowing the pea out of their whistles because, “they’re giving the game back to the fans” I couldn’t help but think of that famous military double-speak from a US General during the Vietnam War: “We had to destroy the village to save the village.”
Seems like the NRL is destroying the game to save the game.
Not that you can really blame them. Coaches are sending out their players to flaunt the rules in order to slow down the play and earn their team an advantage.
They would much rather give away two points than six or, even better, have the chance to set their defence against a tap-kick close to their line.
Sometimes defenders lie on top of the tackled player so long you’d swear they’ve either fallen asleep or had a heart attack.
As for their interpretation of 10 metres, I wouldn’t want to be buying a block of land from them. You’d pay for a quarter acre and end up with a postage stamp.
They know it too. When Craig Bellamy was asked after the Sharks debacle if it was up to the coaches and players to stop trying to slow up the play, he gave a sidestep Billy Slater would have been proud of.
Bellamy and the Storm have made an art-form of it, and the rest aren’t far behind.
Unfortunately for the League, they find themselves in a classic Catch-22 situation.
The game exists only because of the truckloads of money that comes from TV deals. The TV deals only come because of the fans who tune in to watch fast, entertaining footy.
To stop coaches and players slowing down the game the League must instruct referees to blow penalties. Penalties slow down the game — and around and around it goes, where it stops nobody knows.
It won’t be long before the bookies will be offering a new “exotic”, along with first tryscorer, halftime-full-time and points margin.
Total penalties.
Still, the way things are going, it could be more entertaining than the games.
Bet responsibly.
Originally published as The Front Row: Penalties ruin Storm-Sharks NRL match