Talking Footy

NRL coaches need to change shape of game from bash and barge contest
Roy Masters
NOV 30 SMH

Hopefully, there will be someone at Monday's annual meeting of NRL coaches brave enough to break from the conservative, regimented, no-risk mould of power football practised in 2014.

The most telling statistic on this year's season is the minor and major premiers had the lowest offload rates in the NRL, that is, the least desire to keep the ball alive. Minor premiers and 2013 champions, the Roosters, were ranked equal 15th in offloads in the competition season, with major premiers, the Rabbitohs 14th.

In other words, the "hit it up, don't pass, drop to your knees in the tackle and play the ball quickly, repeat on the next tackle" brand of football prevailed. Size helps. Big is better in the NRL with the three heaviest teams – Rabbitohs, Roosters and Bulldogs – all lasting the longest in 2014.

Rugby league has returned to the 1998 post Super League model where Wayne Bennett's Broncos did not pass the ball in their own half. The strategy was simply to use the big wingers, Wendell Sailor and Lote Tuqiri, to charge the ball forward from dummy half, with the big props following suit. Shane Webcke was the premium front rower of his era, yet rarely passed the ball. The Broncos simply rolled the ball forward to the forty, kicked to the corners and then waited for an error from the opposition.

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Sixteen years later, the successful teams are doing the same. In 16 years' time, attempts to pass the ball will resemble a sea lion trying to shot put a half melted block of ice.

The 2014 NRL grand final was a power game but certainly not a skillathon. Yet it was the highest rating TV program in history and probably won't be equalled until Lady Di dies again and has another funeral.

If Souths weren't there, the ratings may have been different. A team freighted with history drew viewers from all over Australia. Even Julie Burgess, the mother of a quartet of Souths forwards, added to the attraction of the power game, with female viewers asking, "how can such a slim attractive woman as that produce four hulking brutes?"

Maybe the 2015 grand final, if played via five hit ups and a kick, won't produce the same viewer numbers. Yet indications are we will see more of the same. The Dragons searched through the discard bin to find the biggest forwards possible: genial giant George Rose whose size resembles his problem: a fridge. He will be joined by the Illawarra Cutters behemoth Shannon Wakeman who weighs in at 110kg.

The Storm, knocked out in the semi finals in two successive years, replaced Rose with one of Canberra's biggest, 112kg Tom Learoyd-Lahrs. Coaches are looking for big guys who can hit the line, using their cocked arm as a bumper bar, drop to the ground quickly and play the ball as fast as possible.

Defensive teams either lift one leg of the ball carrier to slow him down, or spin him, effectively a dance to buy time. Yet most attempts to keep the attacking player on his feet are met with the referee calling "held", meaning the tacklers must release him immediately and retreat.

In other words, the big ball carriers win the battle of the ruck and establish the momentum.

Fans are aware of this.

At a Men of League function in Melbourne, prior to the Australia versus England Test match, I met one guy who often cannot watch a game live. Despite knowing the result, he still wants to see it. He tapes the match and fast-forwards whenever a team has the ball in its own half, playing it in normal speed when a team is attacking the opposition's end of the field.

Perhaps Monday's meeting of NRL coaches will reveal the alarming statistics of 2014: the Rabbitohs with an average 8.6 offloads per game in the regular season were ranked 14th and the Roosters, equal 15th with 8.3. Another team with big front row forwards and a semi finalist, the Cowboys, were also 15th.

The ranking of offloads during the playoff period was equally telling. The Storm, thrashed by the Bulldogs, was top with 18, while premiers, Souths were 7th with an average of 8.

Their grand final opponents, the Bulldogs came from 7th on the semi final ladder to play four games with a bulldozer strategy of keeping offloads to a minimum with 4.8.

The mantra of the modern coach is "shape", meaning creating passing options, yet there is not much whirling geometry in attack these days.

King-Eliagh wrote:

All the while women, the elderly and children are flocking to get away from sooker hooligans. The police, however, are turning up in record numbers