Kia ora. Matty Flatt here, assistant to the Managing Editor here to close out a week of Hoddles sans-Fitzie (come back to us Fitzie!!!)
Building on Dustin’s Hoddle from yesterday, it may surprise some of you to learn that I follow sports other than football. One of those sports is going through a bit of an identity crisis right now, and it’s thanks to changes in the sport’s rules.
That sport is rugby league, where I am a long-suffering supporter of the Warriors in Australia’s (and New Zealand’s, I guess)
NRL competition. The NRL is arguably league’s version of the Premier League: though league is played in other places and competitions around the world, namely England, the NRL is probably considered the highest quality competition – cue loud protests from some of our British readers.
Rugby league is in some ways similar to American football, whereby the team in possession has a certain number of “tackles” (kind of like a “down”) to advance the ball up the field before possession is turned over to the other team. The first of these aforementioned rule changes was implemented back in 2020, where instead of certain infringements around the tackle area (called the “ruck”) resulting in a penalty kick to advance the attacking team upfield, the referee would award “six again”, restarting the tackle count with the play continuing without halting. The idea being was this would increase the speed of the game and keep things free-flowing, minimizing the stoppages generated from the referee blowing his whistle.
(What I should add is the standard of refereeing around penalties was quite poor, meaning referees would often hesitate to blow their whistle for a penalty, but now have no problem awarding a six again. Sound familiar?)
Initially, this was seen as a reasonably welcome change, with the thought that this could increase some of the quality of play and give more of an edge to the smaller, technical players as the larger players tired. Unfortunately, the NRL decided to make things even more “exciting” this season and increase the areas on the field where a six again call could be made (in these areas previously, a penalty would be awarded instead, but ya know, the referees don’t do that) – and it’s changed the game for the worse.
There already had been an increase in injuries due to the faster speed of play, meaning more strain on athlete’s bodies; this has now been exacerbated, and rather than making contests more exciting it’s now made them hugely more one-sided. Basically, six again calls tire the defending team, and as you get more tired, you are going to try slow the game down to recover (either intentionally or unintentionally), concede more six agains, and so on and so forth. It becomes a vicious cycle.
This means there have been a number of scoreline blowouts this season, and it’s also removed the efficacy of some of the more physical players, changing the sport from a more gladitorial outlet to something more resembling touch footy.
It brings to mind other rule changes over the years that have resulted in identity crises for sports – some for the better, some not. The offside rule in football was hugely controversial when it came in but arguably changed football for the better, whereas some of the officiating now around set pieces is having the opposite effect (though that’s less of a rule change and more around how the rules are interpreted and enforced). Some are for player safety reasons: cricket added a rope inside the fence to mark the boundary for sixes and fours (like baseball’s home runs) to stop fielders hurting themselves on the fence, and rugby outlawed the act of rucking (kicking with one’s foot to try and retrieve the ball from under a pile of players).
Are there any rule changes in sports you follow that have had a huge impact on the way the game is played? Was it for the better?
Matty Flatt’s track of the day: Games Without Frontiers (Massive/DB Mix), by Peter Gabriel
And now for your links:
Alasdair Gold breaks down Spurs’ remaining fixtures in their fight for survival
ICYMI: James Maddison is back in training, via Spurs Official Twitter
The Athletic ($) takes a look at some of the data around the relegation battle (spoiler alert: it doesn’t look great for Spurs)
This Youtube vid from Adam Clery takes a look at De Zerbi’s tactics and what we can glean from the Sunderland match
