You're missing the point of why a longer "10" is crippling us. We are barely getting back to where the ref is holding the line before the opposition is already over the advantage line and coming to us. That's why we seem so passive.
The Storm and to a lesser extent the Cowboys have realised that when you have the ball, you can do anything with the markers. You'll see at least two plays PER SET where the Storm player playing the ball will either move off the mark, or will deliberately hold or fall in to the markers, giving Grant or Smith a saloon passage back behind the ruck. A couple of years ago someone was saying that the Broncos were moving off the mark when they were playing the ball, which is why there was a crackdown for, say, half a week (aka the game that we played), but since the Storm and Cowboys are getting great success out of it, there is crickets. Watch a Storm game and watch their play-the-balls, and when the Cows play, watch Feldt. Every ruck he is trying to milk a penalty and when that doesn't happen, he just grabs the jersey of one of the markers and pushes them to one side. The marker can't do anything because if they try to push back they get penalised. Like most of the rules that get bent, it's amazingly simple and effective, but you're only able to get away with it if the refs let you.
