NRL: Speed works for little guys

Stacey Jones can work to his advantage. Photo / Getty Images

Steve Price joked that the number of video referrals last season meant the NRL was resembling something closer to the NFL.

Games were taking nearly two hours, including 10 minutes for halftime, because of the constant stoppages. While those breaks might have been a godsend for props like Price, when they could catch their breath, they were a god-awful waste of time for fans.

Those days seem a thing of the past. What the first two weeks of the season have thrown up is a version of the NRL faster than anything seen in recent times.

That's the impression, anyway.

The advent of two referees, a determination to clean up the rucks and eliminate much of the wrestle and less dependence on the video referee has resulted in some frenetic action.

The early season is often like that, as players finally take the field after weeks of getting ready.

But this is different and could bring fundamental changes to the way the game is played, how coaches manage their interchanges and even what type of players clubs recruit.

Statistics put together by Fox Sports reveal games in round one were five minutes shorter than the corresponding matches last season - 86.3 minutes rather than 91.6 minutes. In the first two rounds, 31 decisions were sent up to the video referee, compared with 58 in the first two games in 2008.

It has resulted in fatigue later in matches, when little guys like Stacey Jones and Lance Hohaia can take advantage of tiring defences and weave their magic as they did in the Warriors first two games of the season.

"It is definitely faster," says Warriors centre Brent Tate who is now in his ninth season of NRL. "Having two referees has sped up the game, the play-the-ball is a lot quicker and not having all of that stoppage time plays a huge part in how games are shaped.

"I like it. It's good for everyone, it tests everyone. It tests the guys in the middle because it's a lot faster and they are doing more work and it's good for the little guys with great footwork because the game opens up. In the past couple of weeks we have seen some really attacking footy and that's a good thing from a fan's point of view."

Interestingly, play-the-balls have not increased markedly - 629 (78.6 a game) in round one last year, 650 (81.25) this year.

Nor have runs out of dummy-half as teams seem to prefer to shift the ball to take advantage of gaps. These reduced from 399 in the first round in 2008 to just 339.

There has also been a perception referees might be whistle-happy with twice as many on the park, but this has not been the case.

There were 236 penalties in the first two rounds in 2008 (14.8 a game) and 248 this year (15.5). This is likely to reduce as the season progresses, as players work out what referees are looking for and referees become less officious. Last season's average was just over 13 penalties a game.

It was suggested last year's reduction of the interchange from 12 to 10 would have a profound influence. This was negated by the reliance on the video referee to analyse not only contentious tries but also strips.

Players could recover at such times. But not now, and the effect has been accentuated in the hot conditions of the early season.

"I think it's great," says Warriors coach Ivan Cleary. "It's definitely changing the interchange. That was probably the hardest one I have ever done last weekend [against Manly].

"Last year we went to 10 interchanges but I didn't think it was that different because there were still times in the game when you're making changes based on strategy. Now you are making them on fatigue. It's changed it a lot.

"As the game progresses, that is going to change the nature of recruitment and selection."

Big boppers, or the oversized front-rower, were already an endangered species and the latest changes will see players become even more homogenous. Few players weigh more than 110kg and teams are already pushing sports science as far as they can.

The Melbourne Storm recently became the first NRL club to wear GPS tracking vests during a competition game.

Results in training showed a Dallas Johnson tackle measured a G-force of 13, equivalent to a force four times greater than a space shuttle launch or a hit almost three times greater than a Formula 1 car at full speed. Multiply that a number of times over the course of a match, and the effects on player fatigue are significant.

The NRL have never been shy of tinkering with the rules in the hope of improving the product. Last year they even trialled at under-20 level 11-a side games with rules which rewarded teams for defusing kicks in their in-goal in the hope of reducing the predictability of bombs at the end of a set.

The addition of a second referee is already one rugby union has thrown up as a possibility.

"We didn't want to increase the pace of the game," says NRL referees boss Robert Finch, "but we wanted to clean the rucks up and we have done that so far. Everyone agrees the rucks are a lot cleaner and there's not as much wrestling.

"It's only two weeks so I'm not jumping to any conclusions but so far I'm pretty happy with it."

It's fair to say, fans would agree. The stop-start nature of the NFL is not one to be admired.