Re: Rugby league is becoming unattractive : Sun Sep 17, 2017 9:55 pm  

When McGuire was at Wigan yes he changed the style but no way Wigan were boring to watch. Okay they were not like Castleford of the last few years but calling them boring. Sorry guys but that's ridiculous.

Wigan played some great stuff.

And how comes when I watch the NRL I am still seeing some great football being played and over there and they love the importance of the wrestle.

We just don't have enough quality in the competition.

Re: Rugby league is becoming unattractive : Mon Sep 18, 2017 6:27 am  

Erik the not red wrote:

I do agree that a lot of work needs to be done on RL improving its image and its a huge task. Unfortunately we get no help from the public school network in the press and the BBC who would rather push utterly unwatchable (& unwatched) garbage like women's football, cricket and yawnion ahead RL in the sports headlines.

.

Are we still pushing this public school line? The influence of the press is getting less and less every year. There are new media, free from editorial influences, that are much more powerful and yet we're still blaming nasty public schoolboy press? Maybe the clubs should actually work out how to use the media and marketing tools that they have properly?

The BBC has more RL content than it has for some time, and the production values are much better tush the days of Ray French.

Re: Rugby league is becoming unattractive : Mon Sep 18, 2017 11:43 pm  

I'd look at the standard of coaching before players.

The problem with the Maguire legacy is that what's left in SL is mostly the dull stuff. Wigan did indeed play high quality, albeit very structured RL under Maguire. Watching them over time its like the memory of how they did that is fading and we're left with a mere shadow. Leeds never really had a "style" as far as I could see, and we still don't - the difference now is that we don't have the players to make whatever it is we're trying to do work. Sts will take a while to bounce back from too long under Cunningham. Warrington have the ability and could easily bounce back next year. Smith probably stayed a year too long at Wire, but I've no doubt he could do a really good job elsewhere, and he produces teams that are generally good to watch.

In the meantime Cas are a breath of fresh air. They don't have the best players across the field but they are wiping the floor with most opponents because - shock - they play really good attacking RL. Sports tend to try to imitate success, so it would be good for the game IMO if Cas win the GF in style, as hopefully other clubs would try to copy the way they play.

Anyway, from whatever perspective you take, Wane and McDermott have done very well at their respective clubs. But I personally would love to see a bit of a sea change at both Leeds and Wigan.

Re: Rugby league is becoming unattractive : Tue Sep 19, 2017 12:56 pm  

BrisbaneRhino wrote:

I'd look at the standard of coaching before players.

The problem with the Maguire legacy is that what's left in SL is mostly the dull stuff. Wigan did indeed play high quality, albeit very structured RL under Maguire. Watching them over time its like the memory of how they did that is fading and we're left with a mere shadow. Leeds never really had a "style" as far as I could see, and we still don't - the difference now is that we don't have the players to make whatever it is we're trying to do work. Sts will take a while to bounce back from too long under Cunningham. Warrington have the ability and could easily bounce back next year. Smith probably stayed a year too long at Wire, but I've no doubt he could do a really good job elsewhere, and he produces teams that are generally good to watch.

In the meantime Cas are a breath of fresh air. They don't have the best players across the field but they are wiping the floor with most opponents because - shock - they play really good attacking RL. Sports tend to try to imitate success, so it would be good for the game IMO if Cas win the GF in style, as hopefully other clubs would try to copy the way they play.

Anyway, from whatever perspective you take, Wane and McDermott have done very well at their respective clubs. But I personally would love to see a bit of a sea change at both Leeds and Wigan.

It may be Cas against the Storm in the WCC.
That would be a good game.
A flamboyant team against a team that can be as flamboyant as any team but also have defensive structure to kill off most attacking teams.

Re: Rugby league is becoming unattractive : Tue Sep 19, 2017 5:47 pm  

Buggo wrote:

It may be Cas against the Storm in the WCC.
That would be a good game.
A flamboyant team against a team that can be as flamboyant as any team but also have defensive structure to kill off most attacking teams.

Could be embarrassing if Cas play Storm at the Mend the Hose Jungle, the NRL would see the version of "Back to the Future" as far as Rugby League Stadium is concerned.

Re: Rugby league is becoming unattractive : Wed Sep 20, 2017 2:21 pm  

Some of the coaching methods have made it less interesting, with the game all about slowing the ruck. Wigan fans would agree because of their methods. Saints fans would agree because they had a coach who coached the dull way. Tony Smith used to coach attractive rugby but stopped being able to do it and win stuff.

Players must take some responsibility, because they are constantly trying to blag penalties. The lowest point for me is when the Salford player threw the ball forward into the grounded Huddersfield man, safe in the knowledge that he will get a penalty.

Is it boring though? No, I don't think so. Seen some cracking games.

Re: Rugby league is becoming unattractive : Thu Sep 21, 2017 9:18 am  

Slugger McBatt wrote:

Is it boring though? No, I don't think so. Seen some cracking games.

It's frustrating - because a lot of the free flowing, unpredictable nature of RL has been removed by coaching methods that focus on 'game management' i.e slowing down the ruck to ensure that the defensive line is set; with the inevitable result that the slowee tries to get the slower penalised i.e milking penalties. In both instances, it's cheating, dressed up in fancy terminology, and negatively impacts the spectacle, making it unattractive.

For me coaches and the administrator are equally to blame - players will broadly do as they're told, and what they're coached to do; and if one team decides unilaterally to take the moral high ground and stop the spoiling tactics, they'll get hammered. So the obvious conclusion is for the administrator to restate how the game will be reffed - make it clear to coaches - who should make it clear to players - and then instruct referees in no uncertain terms that they *will* ref the game to the new standards. Coaches will quickly adapt if their players get penalised out of a game.

It doesn't seem that difficult to me - so one can only conclude that the RFL are happy with how the game is evolving; not many fans seem to agree though.

Re: Rugby league is becoming unattractive : Thu Sep 21, 2017 4:42 pm  

frankly I think we need to make sure that players are able to pass the ball and catch the ball before we address any of the other issues.

The amount of just awful forward passes or throws in to touch, the amount of dropped ball under little to know pressure is just awful. At least once a game a dummy half will simply fail to pick the ball up without dropping it. Our basic skill level is embarrassing.

Re: Rugby league is becoming unattractive : Fri Sep 22, 2017 6:18 am  

Is part of the problem also the really small squads most teams now have?

Every side probably has 10 players who are impossible to drop, and when injuries bite almost every player becomes undroppable. Star players have always been excused for the odd off day, but now average Joes get picked every week because they're contracted and the gap from U19 is just too large to bring any but the best into the first team. Given our first team squad is supposed to be about 25 players, over half of the squad would get picked every week if everyone is fit even if playing well below their best.

Re: Rugby league is becoming unattractive : Fri Sep 22, 2017 8:59 am  

SmokeyTA wrote:

frankly I think we need to make sure that players are able to pass the ball and catch the ball before we address any of the other issues.

The amount of just awful forward passes or throws in to touch, the amount of dropped ball under little to know pressure is just awful. At least once a game a dummy half will simply fail to pick the ball up without dropping it. Our basic skill level is embarrassing.

I don't agree - unless you want to the game to be played by robots who never make a mistake, it's unreasonable to expect everything to be executed perfectly; players make basic errors for all sorts of reasons, many of which are intrinsic to sport - fatigue, pressure, nerves etc.

And even if it was the case, improving basic skills has no impact at all on whether we should stamp out cheating.