Eels Blogs

Broadcasting -

There is 384 regular season NRL games per year, 72 of these are broadcasted by Channel 9, divide that by the 16 teams and that equals 4.5 and if spread out fairly each team will feature in 9 free to air games. Now the NRL is never going to do that because it’s all bloody marketing these days. The NRL needs to stick to a Thursday Night Game, Friday Night Game and a live Sunday Afternoon Game, taking away the Thursday Night Game during the bye rounds.  The distribution of the games should depend on where you finish on the previous seasons ladder and where you finished in the finals ie. If you won the premiership you get mostly Friday Night Games but if you win the spoon you get mostly Sundays.

Video Refereeing -

The referees should not be required to make an on field decision as if they have no idea then it’s really irrelevant. Video refs should be allowed to rule on anything including forwards passes from the play the try was scored, they should not be allowed to go back a couple of plays and rule on that. Downward pressure should be required and control must be present so for example if a ball is rolling in goal and a finger literally just touches the ball in a downwards motion then that should be deemed no control. When a try is given on field the video referees should be required to review it and if sufficient evidence of a no try is found between the try and the conversion then the video ref should be able to overrule the decision. The video ref should also be required to confirm 40/20 kicks and also confirm who was the last person to touch the ball before going out of play ie. Aaron Woods origin incident.

Refereeing and Rules -

Any play deemed to have purposely committed a dangerous tackle should be put on report and sin binned as well as a penalty being given, if a player is deemed to have repeated in the same game then a send off is necessary. If a player gives away more than 3 penalties in a game then they should be sin binned. Quick taps should be eradicated and scrums should all become taps as scrums are literally rendered useless. Time should be called off as soon as the ball is out of play. The loose carry rule is stupid because as far as I’m concerned it’s a strip and it should be eradicated along with the hand on the ball during the tackle, unless the defender is trying to yank the ball from the ball carriers hand during a multiple person tackle then it is not necessary. Golden point should be a period of 10-20 minutes where teams have a chance to score, the first points doesn’t win but the team who scored the most points at the end of the period does.

Shoulder Charge -

The shoulder charge should be brought back as long it hits the shoulders or below, shoulder charges that come into contact with the head should be penalised and placed on report/sin binned.

Captains Challenge -

Each team should receive a Captains Challenge per half for penalties and handling errors. If the teams challenge is successful they have their challenge returned but if they are rejected they lose it for the half.

Second Tier Salary Cap -

The second tier cap should remain as it is. Any team deemed to have less than 17 of their top 25 players available in one round should be given concessions after a NRL doctor has confirmed all injuries will keep players out of the game. Over the season any team should be allowed to debut players past NYC age and play them for 1 game per player (unless they are given a concession) even if they are exceeding the second tier cap. During the bye periods any team should be allowed to debut any amount of NYC age players even if they are exceeding the second tier cap and play them as they wish for the four games they have during the bye period as it allows them to get that NRL experience without having to go up against the NRL’s elite players as they will be away on rep duties, also the clubs deserve to be compensated for having to play without their best players.

Injured Reserve -

Season ending injuries and suspensions can hurt any club. The NRL needs to adopt the NFL’s injured reserve concept where if a player receives a season ending injury or suspension that they should be allowed to place them on an injured reserve so they are discounted from the top 25 and the current years’ salary cap for the whole season and finals from which they cannot return until the next season. This allows teams to sign a replacement player for the remainder of the year and they can be waived at seasons end or signed to the top 25 if there is a space available. After June 30 a player can only be signed from the NYC or Feeder teams.

Penalty Tries -

If a player commits a penalty in their own in goal while the other team has the ball, whether the player puts the ball down or not it should be given an 8 point penalty try.

Late Tackles on the Kicker -

If a tackle on the kicker is deemed deliberate or deemed that the tackler had time to change his path then that should be brought back and given a penalty.

Caught with the ball on last tackle -

This is just a very raw idea derived from the NFL’s fourth down concept and I want to see what people think of it. If a player gets caught with the ball on last tackle should the team be given a chance to kick it into touch whether it be on the full or not. The team that kicks it can in no way receive a new set unless a handling error or penalty from the other team is given. So even if the team that kicks it, chases it and regathers the team will be required to hand the ball over where it is regathered. A 40/20 or field goal cannot be given and it is purely for territorial purposes only. If the team with the ball decides to kick it for territorial purposes they do so knowing that the opposition team will receive a 7 tackle set and knowing that the other team is free to return it if it does not travel out. If the kick goes dead on the full it will be brought back but if the kick bounces dead it will be player from the 20.

Time wasting -

If a team is deemed to be time wasting any player not onside by the restart of play should be ruled offside and the offside will only be lifted once the player reaches the onside position of where play began for that set.

Conversion alternatives -

I think this concept was in the all-star game a few years back and this has a bit of modification combining it with the nines concept. If a team scores under the posts in the bonus zone thingy then instead of taking kick conversion they have a chance to take a try conversion from the 20 in 1 play or 3 plays (just ideas).

2 Point Field Goals -

If a player can kick a field goal from before half way they receive two points.

3 Point Penalties -

This is the same as the 2 point field goal idea but if a player can kick the ball from a penalty kick beyond half way the team receives 3 points.

Free Interchange -

If a player goes off injured in the first half the team can have a free interchange but the player going off cannot return to the field for the remainder of the game.

18^th Man -

If a player goes off injured in the first half the team can bring in a pre-designated 18^th man in but the player going off cannot return and the interchange costs the team 2 interchanges.

Player Trade -

Do I really have to explain this, if two teams agree to exchange players from their top 25 than why not let them as long as they stay within the cap. Players can insert no trade clauses in their contract or once they have been at the club for a certain amount of years they can choose whether they want to be traded. This could also help with players wanting out of a club, they can request to be traded and the club is still fully compensated.

Mid-Level Exceptions -

A team that is at the salary cap roof can sign 1 player up to the value of in this instance let’s say $300 000 (a solid first graders salary) before the June 30 deadline and only for the remainder of the season, they can then be let go or signed into the top 25 at the end of the season.

Salary Cap Waivers -

If a team decides to release a player from their squad they are still required to pay the full amount for the remainder of the contract to the player but only half counts towards the salary cap, injured reserve players cannot be released. Of course when another club picks the player up the club is relieved of whatever the players’ new club is paying him. Another variation of this is once another club picks the player up they are relieved of the cap hit the next season.

Minimum Contracts -

Before June 30 a player can be released from the top 25 and the club can sign a player to the top 25 on a base salary contract for the remainder of the year and exceeding the cap to do so is permissible as long as the club is back under the cap the next season.

Soft Cap/Luxury Tax -

A team can go over the cap to resign players but are required to pay a tax to do so. If a team is over the cap after resigning players’ free agent acquisitions cannot be made. If this idea doesn’t appeal maybe a franchise tag that acts as a cap exception can be allocated an off contract player.

Free Agency and Player Resigning’s -

The resigning’s can go either way. Resigning’s can be made at any time during the year no matter how long is remaining on the contracts or there is a set period in the off season that player resigning’s can be made. The free agency could be a period where teams negotiate with all players who did not resign and agree to contracts. Any player who was not signed during this period can still be signed before June 30.

Draft -

For this to work Reserve Grade would have to be brought back, Junior Rugby League would have to apply for up to 21 year olds, NYC would be eradicated and Junior Rugby League clubs would have to be NRL funded and not NRL club funded. Players could declare for the draft after their 18^th Birthday or if they would be 18 by the time the NRL season kicks off. To be eligible the entrants must have a Year 12 Certificate or a minimum Cert 3 TAFE certificate by the time the draft takes place. Rookie Scale Contracts would have to be put in place and a lottery of draft picks for the bottom 8 teams would have to take place. Also the top 25 would have to be larger because each team probably debuts 5 players every year. Another idea for this long term is to have Rugby League Development Schools that are like TAFE where students can study TAFE certificates or even Bachelor degrees but they also focus on Rugby League development and a competition would be run between the schools like the NCAA in America. We can’t have the college system like America as our Unis/TAFEs are a lot more government funded and run and we don’t have the same culture as America in where college is pretty much a necessity where as over here only the smart c**** go to uni.

Reserve Grade -

Bring back grade plain and simple, sick of NYC, QCup, NSW Cup bullcrap. Give the NRL teams a top 40, raise the cap and the players who don’t play in the NRL that week go to reserve grade. It is also an opportunity to throw FIJI, PNG, Samoa, Tonga, Perth into NRL team contention.   

Raise the cap -

Raise the cap and the teams that can’t keep up get booted, I’m sure Perth or a second Brisbane team would have more than enough money to keep up with a cap say like 10-15 million.

Cap concessions -

Simple idea, if a team finishes in the bottom 8 they get cap concessions for the next season only to make them more competitive, eg. Warriors get a 100k cap concession whereas Sharks get a 500k cap concession.

Grand Final Raffle -

In each preseason have a lottery between Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney and every say 3 or 4 years you have a lottery between Canberra, Townsville, Auckland, Gold Coast and Gosford.

Innocent until proven guilty -

If a player is accused of sexual assault, assault even bloody property damage the NRL shouldn’t step in until they are convicted because if they are acquitted then you’ve wasted a lot of time, money and reputation.

People’s choice -

Have QLD and NSW memberships like regular club memberships with meet and greets, members’ packs and stuff but then have a voting membership say like $15 a year where the members get to vote once and only once for who should play for their own state but also who should coach, ref and video ref the game like the NFL does with their Pro Bowl. This way it stops selector and coach bias. The same could be done for City vs Country, PM 13, International squads and tests.

Peoples Dally M Vote -

Allow the people to vote on who should win the dally m award and the other awards rather than a couple of wacko ex-players.

Central contracting -

Simple concept, the NRL signs the players and then the clubs can negotiate with players to stop code hoppers like the ARU does.

Code Hopper Limitations -

To deter code hoppers the NRL could ban them from rep games or cap their max salary if they decide to come back and this would be a good deterrent but it would screw us if they actually left and plus the RPLA would have a spaz.

I’m not saying the NRL should implement all of these its just ideas.

Anyone else have any ideas?