Lowering of the benchmark
By Stuart Honeysett
December 10, 2007
RUGBY league is on the cusp of its next evolution and not everyone is happy.
At the annual coaches and players conference, 32 of the game's pre-eminent minds gathered at NRL headquarters to discuss changes for next season.
The early running was smooth. The contentious grapple tackle was raised and there was consensus in the room to rub it out of the game. But the goodwill evaporated when the interchange rule came on to the agenda.
Following a horror season that saw some of the NRL's best talent succumb to injury, including Darren Lockyer, Johnathan Thurston, Mark Gasnier and Karmichael Hunt, there was a push to reduce the number of interchanges from 12 to 10.
The theory is the game, at the moment, favours forwards. Backs are only ever rotated if they are injured and are being asked to test the defences of teams that can run on fresh big men to stop them.
Cutting that number, even by two, means some forwards will have to stay out on the field a little longer. They will tire and might not crunch the backs with the same vigour. More importantly, the gaps that have been shrinking in the defensive line because of fresh men plugging them up might appear once again.
Most coaches saw merit in the idea but there were a few dissenting voices in the room.
Newcastle coach Brian Smith was one of them.
"The first thing I thought is we should have had a season to prepare for it," Smith said.
"Every club has done its recruitment to this point in time and there are definitely some players who will be worth more and others who will be not worth as much under a system where you can only make 10 rotations.
"My second concern is player welfare. There's going to be much more pressure on players to play injured, to stay on the field when they're injured because of that reduction.
"There are some people who think that's a good thing. I don't.
"I like the feel of our game at the moment. I think we've got the right amount of power and explosive speed and the entertainment that comes with all of that."
Smith also feared the change could slow down the game.
"You'll have players on there that are fatigued and, once you start to get to where you can't replace players when they're fatigued, coaches will start to take liberties," he said.
"They'll start kicking the ball out more often, slowing the game down as much as they can so you can get through those periods. There will be more dead time and I like the flow of the game as it is."
Not everyone agreed. Some, including Warriors captain Steve Price, believed it was time for the next evolutionary step.
He played through the last change when unlimited interchange rule was scrapped in 2001 and replaced with a 12-4 system (12 interchanges from four replacements on the bench).
Price believed it made him a better player. He has a tremendous engine for a forward and was being asked back then to play in a time that favoured raw power. Under unlimited interchange, the most effective player was not necessarily the fittest.
"That was more of a drastic move than what we're talking about now," Price said.
"This is only two less changes, whereas back then there were some coaches making 40 changes a game. We're all at a level now where players know their role and they play it and it might just manipulate that a little bit.
"Players have adapted to it, coaches have adapted to it and now I reckon it's time that we go to the next level.
"Unfortunately, there's going to be some guys that may struggle with it but, before unlimited interchange, they wouldn't have been able to survive either."
That next level remains the great unknown. The idea still needs to be ratified next month by the Rugby League International Federation before it becomes an experimental rule in the NRL but if that happens, as expected, it will reshape the way coaches approach a game.
With two less interchanges which players will they use to pick up the slack? It is almost unheard of for a prop to go the distance, so hookers and backrowers will have to plough through more minutes than before.
A player such as Parramatta backrower Nathan Hindmarsh becomes even more valuable, as one of the few forwards who can last 80 minutes.
So too Newcastle forward Steve Simpson, who joined the 80-minute club last season.
But what of the others?
Former bouncer turned Cronulla forward Eddie Su'a answered an SOS call for Sharks coach Ricky Stuart this season but could only manage 10-minute bursts before he was puffing. Given it will be harder to carry players under a 10-4 rule, his days look numbered.
Then there is Eels prop Fuifui Moimoi. It was only last season that he shook his reputation as a devastating impact player who was good for 10 minutes after working overtime to improve his fitness. Now, he could be asked for even more game time.
"It will just mean he will have to be more vigilant with his skin folds and the type of conditioning work we've done with him," Eels coach Michael Hagan said.
"There will be more emphasis placed on that at most clubs now. It might change the nature of the game a little bit, in terms of the more explosive player that can't knock out the minutes would be under pressure, but no-one seemed too concerned about that from a coaching point of view."
Eels hooker Mark Riddell will also be affected.
Hagan has already asked for more out of his No. 9 next year, after the loss of PJ Marsh to Brisbane, and that assignment becomes even tougher under a 10-4 rule. Not surprisingly, Riddell has been doing extra fitness work this pre-season.
"I'm just doing a lot of running, just trying to get some kilometres under the belt," Riddell said. "I averaged about 55 minutes this season so we're looking pretty much that Hages wants me to knock out the first half and then just play it by ear after that.
"If he can save one interchange in the first half by not having to change me, that gives us plenty of room to move with other forwards."
Price saw 10-4 as the start of further changes to the interchange rule. While not wishing to return to the days of four bench players who could be changed only once in a game, he can see scope to bring the rule down further to 8-4 or 6-4.
"Our sport is about endurance, fitness and the gladiatorial type game," Price said. "The game does change and you've got to be able to change with it.
"And it will change the game, in that it will put more pressure on us bigger guys.
"Even if it's an extra five minutes, there's guys that will struggle with that five minutes at the moment. I'm sure if you've got a Darren Lockyer or a Preston Campbell running at you during that five minutes, it will be pretty interesting."
