Waney is on the prowl!

[DaveO]

But on RL, when I hear talk of abolishing 40/20s and bringing back the corner flag, even going back to playing in mud in the winter, I just want to curl up and die. Way to finish off the game in record time! And what would the NRL say? I'll tell you what they'd say: go ahead, pal, it's your funeral.

Moving to Winter has been the single biggest mistake the game made. "Summer" RL is just as likely to see middy pitches right the way up to May.

By moving away from winter we killed off International tours with National teams playing several club sides as well as a three test series. A hugely detrimental move IMO.

We also removed the opportunity for players to do an off season in the "other" competition (NRL or SL) which means it's much more likely a player will move permanently than do a short stint. People used to complain some didn't end up with an off-season but like having fewer subs the game coped and was played accordingly.

More of our players got to test themselves in the NRL and we saw top NRL (well ARL back then) stars here but the big issues has been the damage the move to winter did to the international game. I always felt the Aussies being here for several weeks playing club sides as well as three tests really raised the profile of the sport. It made a tour a much bigger test for the tourists as well, as it ought to be.

[medlocke]

I've never heard or seen a bad word about the 40/20.
It is a skillful play that deserves the reward it gets.
Corner flag tries are spectacular and worth watching.

Does anyone who goes to games want those pieces of skill abolished from our game?

I don't want to see corner flag tries disappear, i want to see skillful corner flag tries like what Pat Richards used to score, the ball skillfully placed down without touching the flag rather than players diving through the flag and plonking the ball down, they only look flashy, as for your comment re 40/20, mediocre teams with crap attack are rewarded by having a half decent kicker where as the team that has put 100% effort into keeping said team within it's own half are penalized against, surely the defenders should be the ones rewarded

[DaveO]

I've never heard or seen a bad word about the 40/20.
It is a skillful play that deserves the reward it gets.
Corner flag tries are spectacular and worth watching.

Does anyone who goes to games want those pieces of skill abolished from our game?

Presumably the corner flag was out of play for the same reason a foot on the line is out of play. Given the flag is on the line it's just not logical it is also not out of play. Why we can't have spectacular tries where the winger manages to avoid the flag I don't know.

As to the 40/20 it is IMO an attempt at a solution to a self inflicted problem.

The move to 10m restarts has virtually killed off the chip over the top from the half backs. Rarely happens these days. Chip over a line 10m back and they have to be half asleep to not deal with it. So now we have the 40/20 option instead. The kicker can kick the ball far enough behind the defence to make an attempt worthwhile. The 10m rule is the culprit here IMO.

The other old rule I'd like reinstated is ball stealing with more than one man in the tackle. You got far more turnovers and the ball carrier had to know how to carry and handle the ball.

Contested scrums? Nah. Once you start doing that you have to set them properly and you get a lot more penalties as you do in RU. Waste of time going to all that trouble but scrums do draw in the forwards so give is a different restart. The way RU is going with huge forwards there are a broken neck away from having to ban 'em anyway. Periodically you get calls for a ban but they are usually shouted down as RU fans will tell you their game is all about the technicalities in the pack and so they cling to their contested scrums. We don't need them.

[First Try Tickle]

I've never heard or seen a bad word about the 40/20.
It is a skillful play that deserves the reward it gets.
Corner flag tries are spectacular and worth watching.

Does anyone who goes to games want those pieces of skill abolished from our game?

Yes me.

To be honest I'm quite surprised to totally agree with Medlocke's last 3 posts.

If you can keep a team in there own 40 by great defence, you shouldn't be penalised because the half can hoof it a long way. The teams that do it are the poor attacking teams like Hudds and Hull. I'd ban kicking all together.

[medlocke]

I've never heard or seen a bad word about the 40/20.
It is a skillful play that deserves the reward it gets.
Corner flag tries are spectacular and worth watching.

Does anyone who goes to games want those pieces of skill abolished from our game?

Presumably the corner flag was out of play for the same reason a foot on the line is out of play. Given the flag is on the line it's just not logical it is also not out of play. Why we can't have spectacular tries where the winger manages to avoid the flag I don't know.

As to the 40/20 it is IMO an attempt at a solution to a self inflicted problem.

The move to 10m restarts has virtually killed off the chip over the top from the half backs. Rarely happens these days. Chip over a line 10m back and they have to be half asleep to not deal with it. So now we have the 40/20 option instead. The kicker can kick the ball far enough behind the defence to make an attempt worthwhile. The 10m rule is the culprit here IMO.

The other old rule I'd like reinstated is ball stealing with more than one man in the tackle. You got far more turnovers and the ball carrier had to know how to carry and handle the ball.

Contested scrums? Nah. Once you start doing that you have to set them properly and you get a lot more penalties as you do in RU. Waste of time going to all that trouble but scrums do draw in the forwards so give is a different restart. The way RU is going with huge forwards there are a broken neck away from having to ban 'em anyway. Periodically you get calls for a ban but they are usually shouted down as RU fans will tell you their game is all about the technicalities in the pack and so they cling to their contested scrums. We don't need them.

I'd also like to see ball stealing at the play of the ball brought back, how many times did we see Edwards, Schofield etc pull them off the excitement of the fans

[old hooker]

The game is being ruined not just by the 40/20 rule but by kicking in general.5 drives and a kick becomes boring.Players like Sneyd, Matty Smith, Michael Dobson etc have nothing in their game but the ability to kick, and in Smiths case that only works now and then.The days of dominating a game by being skilful with ball in hand are gradually dying out.

[jao 711]

Agree about the corner flag ,if that is skilled how skilled was it to get in without touching the flag? Spectacular yes for a while but you know if you eat too many sweets you get sick of ‘em.It’s all part of the Aussies trying to get more spectacle into their five drives and a kick game that is often pretty boring. As I have said before it’s turning everybody into utility players.The sad part is we ,as usual just follow the leader.Also considering the large pool of players they have why are they once again “cherry picking “ our best players or trying to at any rate? The 40/20 is a great rule Simply because it doesn’t happen very often,and it’s an attacking play.

[DaveO]

DaveO. You wrote: Presumably the corner flag was out of play for the same reason a foot on the line is out of play. Given the flag is on the line it's just not logical it is also not out of play. Why we can't have spectacular tries where the winger manages to avoid the flag I don't know.

May I suggest the corner flag might not always be perfectly upright thus appearing to sometimes be in the field of play?

The way some players (and officials) sometimes place the corner flag in a haphazard way may somehow contribute to this.

Just a thought.

Players are rarely perfectly upright and may have their entire body in the field of play but if their foot touches the line, they are out of play. So no, you may not

[Mike]

In all other parts of the field your entire body can be outside of the line, as long as you don't touch the ground you are still in play. The new corner flag rule makes that consistent. Touch the ground outside the lines you're out, don't touch the ground you're still in .

[Firestarter]

Meds is right....... the corner flag rule is s joke..... for example the wingers( mostly) jump in the air at the corner flag, not only for spectacular tries, but because you cant touch a pkayer in mid air...... when you look at it like that its pretty pointless really........its like i wanna tackle the flashy git but,if i do ill probably get penalized or cause a serious injury too him.........just changing the subject a little i cant believe nobodys mentioned the voluntary tackle.... by far the biggest joke in RL..... falling out ov the in goal area makes a mockery out ov the old rules..... paul wellens was a master ov this king ov cheating(and in my opinion is exactly what this is).....