Defends NRL’s six-again rule amid criticism from Ricky Stuart and clubs over high scores and injuries
Wayne Bennett has defended the NRL’s radical change as clubs and coaches raise questions about the controversial six-repeat rule, with high scores and injuries attributed to fatigue.
This season’s increased set restarts have increased the pace of games and increased the number of points won to an average of 50 per game.
The changes were implemented as the law seeks to offer broadcasters the most attractive product possible in order to achieve a record fee for the next five-year rights cycle.
But they have become a point of contention, with some clubs frustrated and Canberra coach Ricky Stuart expressing concern this week, saying “we’ve lost the fabric of the game”.
The club’s chief executives have sought a meeting with NRL head of football Graham Annesley over the issue, but South Sydney coach Bennett maintains the game cannot return to an era of turmoil.
“There’s no doubt this will be a game changer,” he said ahead of Souths’ match against Shane Flanagan’s St George Illawarra at Accor Stadium on Saturday.
“But we’ve got a fun game at the moment. There’s some great tries going on, some great ball movement. Are we going to go back to where there are clamps and all the other terms for the different types of tackles we do to keep players down?
“I don’t want to go back to that. We suffered through that for over a decade and I don’t want to go back to that.”
Some clubs have adapted better than others to this year’s six-man replay and the use of the attacking team from the 20-metre line rather than the 40-metre line.
These include the Raiders, along with Stuart, who has previously been a supporter of zeroing out the tackle count instead of penalties for certain infractions, arguing the policy goes too far.
Stuart, who beat the Rabbitohs 36-34 in Perth last weekend, said on Thursday: “Making the game faster doesn’t necessarily make it more attractive because the scoreline is 50-30. I don’t believe it’s more attractive.”
Parramatta coach Jason Ryles warned earlier this season that greater fatigue among players would lead to more injuries from hip drop tackles, such as the one that saw Eels representative forward J’maine Hopgood end his season in round three.
Bennett, whose team is in fifth place in the rankings, said that he would be happy if an alternative was found that did not require the restart of the sets, but he believed that “the responsibility still lies with the players.”
“Players are always playing on the edge of the rules and it’s a situation where they can’t really play on the edge because it really hurts your team,” he said.
“They need to be more conscious of being more accommodating and trying harder to give the referee what he wants. They want a cleaner, better ball-playing situation than we’ve had in the past, and personally I don’t want that to change.”
Clubs are also looking for clarity on when changes to rules and interpretations will be made in the future, with some unhappy with how little notice was given of this year’s changes before they were implemented.
The NRL announced an updated version of the six-replay rule on February 4, less than a month before the season kicks off with a double-header in Las Vegas.
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Chris Barrett is senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald. He is a former Southeast Asia correspondent for the Herald and The Age newspapers.Connect with: X or email.
