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More stuff to read
"Abdo was an idiot. Didn't know what he was doing."
"Yes, kicking behind the line is something missing for us that our 6 and 1 should provide. Iongi has developed it and we scored off his kicks against Brisbane I think. Really need him back."
"Foran played 162 NRL games AFTER HE LEFT THE EELS. Add that to the 147 he played in his first stint at Manly and the 9 games he played for us, Foran played over 300 NRL games. Hardly a player with "problems". Most likely is that he got the fuck out…"
"Yehez, yep, you'd probably rather defend on the line with 13-men than further up-field where full-backs and wingers drop back for the kick; almost a 10-man line.
That's also a reason we probably need to be better at scoring tries off kicks behind…"
That's also a reason we probably need to be better at scoring tries off kicks behind…"
There is an alleged RLPA player poll being talked about in the podcast world that could provide explosive media click-bait when it's officially released soon.
Paul Kent’s May 25th podcast (from about the 34th minute) claims that around half the 56-57 odd RLPA poll respondents were senior players with 8+ years NRL experience (over 200 seasons of experience) and their concerns include:
What's interesting is this RLPA poll has been leaked before it's been made offical.
Daz makes some valid points that this poll represents a very small sample and it could be widely misleading: "a coin toss".
Still, optics-wise, it’s not ideal, regardless of whether it's fair or not, representive of a broader playing group or not.
Whether that relatively small senior sample represents the broader playing group is difficult to determine. Younger players also have less to compare with than senior players. Also, senior players have a huge influence on younger players too.
It also clashes somewhat with the V’landyball marketing narrative of the game having record crowds, being bigger, faster, better and more entertaining than ever.
There are fans, including me, who aren’t entirely convinced either.
Average scores are now pushing beyond 50 points per game, the highest in history. 20 plus margins of blowouts are common now. Kent makes the valid point coaches fear fatigue: fatigue makes cowards of us all.
Not only that but the risk of injuries increase. With the clamp down on any head contact and force, even caused by ball-carriers falling into tackles, defences are pressured to be more passive.
Defences rarely can withstand more than 3 minutes of sustained pressure. 3 sets. That is based on the best the Panthers have defended without leaking a try.
Gus Gould has regularly commented on the unfair contest between attack and defence and it being next to impossible to have much defensive resilience, especially due to the new rules and huge number of restarts and penalties, and refereering interpretations and head-high issues.
All this doesn’t prove the game is “broken,” but it does suggest the ARLC and NRL should probably examine whether the balance between fatigue, speed, officiating influence and entertainment has shifted too far.
Some solid sources also suggest not all referees, privately, are on board with the new rules and where the game is heading and believe there is some bias.
Kent’s podcast also raised concerns about potential for match-fixing; integrity perceptions in the gambling era. It would be naive to think their aren't shady things happening in the game.
With the TV deal coming up, and Abdo resigning at an interesting point in time, it's food for thought for the game’s powerbrokers. A potential ticking time bomb.