@ said:
For far too long clubs (some a lot better than others)have been ruining the games through spoiling tactics. I ve said before and ill say it again, the rules are there so its in black and white. You don't have to interpret anything.
Clubs won't stop w spoiling tactics, if you think so you are deluded. Clubs will always pressure the rules and the refs to gain an advantage.
E.g. all of a sudden clubs have switched to penalty goals because of the penalties blown and constant rest the defence is getting. Already Slater and Smith have taken very clear dives to get players sin-binned.
I'm all for sin bin but binning Lewis for that and Smith for backchat is ridiculuous. Sure Smith deserves a smack for his career of rule-bending but there was so much backchat and fighting last night from frustrated players, yet only 1 went to the bin.
You ask for consistency in black and white rules, but there is not consistency that is the problem, once you ref like a Nazi you can't go back "when the players learn their lesson" because the minute you relax, the players are pushing the boundaries again.
And really all you do when you crack down on one rule is overlook the other rules. E.g. forward passes, they are illegal, but clubs still throwing a lot of forward passes from dummy half arent getting called.
Finally, rules actually are not black and white. Some have opinion and interpretation literally written into the law. E.g. penalty tries: _"the Referee may award a penalty try if, in his
opinion, a try would have been scored but for the unfair play of the defending team. A penalty try is awarded between the goal posts irrespective of where the offence occurred"._
Even the current NRL lawbook is actually called "Rugby League International Rules and NRL Interpretations" (paraphrased). If the laws are so black and white, why does the NRL have a 68-page document of interpretations?
Some people are in a fantasy of "how it should be" or "how it used to be" when those themselves are just interpretations of the game. Is the game better viewing? IMO no. Are the refs catching all the penalties? Certainly not.
And lastly are clubs figuring out the new interpretations and successfully reducing their penalty load? Not in 4 rounds. Actually, as noted, some clubs like the penalty counts. They like scrappy affairs where attacking sides are stifled. It's potentially very accurate that one of the reasons Tigers are defending well this yr is because we predicted the penalty fest of 2018 and we are prepared to give up goals instead of tries, and stifle teams like Storm and Roosters. Sharks played Melb last night exactly how we played, it was ugly and Storm fell apart.
