Rothfield's Top 50 Ways To Improve The NRL

Big Pete

Big Pete

International Captain
Mar 12, 2008
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50 ways to fix rugby league


1 Scrap the 4pm Channel Nine replay for live free-to-air games on Sunday afternoons.

2 Set up a video referees bunker to get consistency into their decision making.

3 Schedule blockbuster games to combat soccer’s A-League Sydney derbies.

4 Get rid of Thursday night football except for the week leading into Easter.

5 Ensure there is a Sunday afternoon game in Sydney every weekend.

6 Reduce State of Origin schedule so it doesn’t stuff the competition for two months.

7 Use the sin-bin for lifting tackles to get them out of the game once and for all.

8 Get rid of the totally meaningless City-Country game.

9 Insist that every club take a trial or premiership game to NSW or QLD country towns.

10 Give every NRL club a bush region which is their responsibility to develop

11 Introduce 30-second time limits for video refs with a scoreboard countdown.

12 Make referees more accountable and drop them for bad mistakes.

13 Introduce a two-week mid-year draft for player negotiations and transfers.

14 Restrict clubs to using three jerseys – home, away and Women in League round.

15 Turn Round 20 into an annual fundraiser for all seriously injured players.

16 Introduce a $50 family ticket for every game, every round.

17 Negotiate with venues for membership discounts and cheaper food and drink prices.

18 Don’t force us to watch the Broncos every Friday night.

19 Move the second Friday night game to another weekend time slot.

20 Drop the Anzac Test in April and play Test football at the end of the season.

21 Lobby the government to save traditional old suburban grounds like Leichhardt Oval.

22 No Monday night football at ANZ Stadium with 70,000 empty seats.

23 Don’t sit back and allow superstars like Sonny Bill and Sam Burgess to switch codes.

24 Reduce the interchange to eight to allow brilliant players to dominate more.

25 Change golden point to golden try so games aren’t decided by hit-ups and field goals.

26 Do more to get Israel Folau and Karmichael Hunt back to the NRL.

27 Introduce more loyalty salary cap concessions to allow for more one-club players.

28 Sign up Roosters legend Anthony Minichiello to a mentoring role for youngsters.

29 Get junior passes out to kids by round one, not round 10 like this year.

30 Send in independent directors and fix the fractured Wests Tigers board.

31 Demand ASADA finalises its investigation into the Cronulla Sharks.

32 More day games because the standard of football is better.

33 Increase the second-tier salary cap so good young players aren’t held back.

34 Change the under-20s to under-21s so good young players don’t fall off the grid.

35 Give the State of Origin shield to the team when they win it, not after a dead rubber.

36 Have a five-minute sin bin for professional fouls.

37 Allow teams to carry 18th man as a reserve for concussed players who can’t come back.

38 Make a decision and stick with 16 teams. The game doesn’t have the player depth for 18.

39 Connect Wi-Fi at every ground. NFL has asked all stadiums to provide free Wi-Fi by 2016.

40 Allow every team to carry one marquee player outside of the salary cap.

41 NRL to take over all pre-match entertainment to improve the game day experience.

42 Let the video refs adjudicate on obvious forward passes.

43 Lower Origin ticket prices to make it more affordable for bread and butter fans.

44 Give us back our Sunday afternoon grand final with a 3pm kick-off

45 Create two conferences with Sydney teams playing each other twice.

46 Make Jarryd Hayne the face of the game for the next TV commercial

47 Ensure every game is live on TV, like the AFL.

48 Hire more NRL staff with stronger football knowledge and fewer bean counters.

49 Play one super weekend of football with double headers at Suncorp, ANZ, Allianz and Newcastle.

50 Time off for all scrum and penalty stoppages.


http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/spo...-1227023309794

I've seen this touted a few places and thought I'd post it up here.

I can't believe people are actually giving Rothfield credit for this list. It looks like it was written by a 13 year old, nice thoughts but no explanations on HOW the NRL would ever fix these issues and to be honest some of these ideas are horrid.

What do you guys think? Does Phil have a point? Or is he just stating the obvious without really providing any interesting insight?
 
30 second time limits for video refs wouldn't solve a thing. It's not the amount of replays they go through that are the big problem, it's the fact that half of them are blind and do not understand the rules properly.

The 3 jersey suggestion, I can't agree with that one. Getting rid of the indigenous jerseys is a bad move. Last time I checked, those jerseys are created to help raise funds for the indigenous communities. Get rid of that and the uproar will be massive...

Make Hayne the face of league for the next tv commercial? Yeah, because that worked out so well last time...

I doubt many players would agree with the golden try. After 80 minutes, they are absolutely fucked. The field goal is the easier option.

I knew the list was going to include the Sharks and Broncos somehow.

He does make some good points, but as you said he doesn't explain how the NRL would fix those issues. Sounds like he was just bored and decided to pull something out of his ass..
 
Last edited:
He does have a point in some of those suggestions like cheaper tickets, live footy on 9 on Sunday and a few other things but overall he just drums up stuff to create attention so I just Passover almost everything he writes.

Off topic but I see this from him so often. For some reason he seems to think football (soccer) will dominate Australia and it's well on it's way to doing so. The A-League will never be the biggest code in Australia.
 
He's just spouted everything that every other journo has ever said. So that he can claim that "he thought of it" later on, when some of it gets seriously considered or implemented by the NRL.
 
I agree with Golden Try and like seeing a draw. It was
always a part of our game.
 
some his list is fanciful at best: for example:

Lobby government to upgrade suburban grounds ... this just isn't going to happen, with the current budget, no way the government spend 10s of millions of dollars on upgrading these stadiums.

Demand ASADA wrap up their Sharks investigation ... all well and good to demand that, but ASADA do take instructions from the NRL

don't stand by and watch guys like SBW and Burgess leave the code ... well what more can they really do (and continue to keep it fair for all teams) the salary cap is continuing to go up to try and combat it, so do you centrally contract stars that may leave. but then who decides who is worthy of a top up from the NRL.

honestly how the **** would making Hayne the face of the game improve rugby league in Australia ... what a load of rubbish.

----------------------------------------------------

I have a new list and he did mention it there ... two things on it that really need to happen.

1. Fix that standard of refereeing in the game ... it is flat out ruining every game these days and they barely act on it. many people i know only watch there own teams now, as they are sick of seeing refs decide games.

2. more day time footy. the footy played in the day is generally more attractive than that played at night.

end of list
 
50 ways to fix rugby league


18 Don’t force us to watch the Broncos every Friday night.

Nobody's putting a gun to his head,

If he doesn't like watching the Broncs then ...................wait for it....................... DONT WATCH!
 
A couple of things need to happen with the referees.

Go back to one referee.

They tried two referees, it started off well but there simply isn't the depth for it and it creates far too much inconsistency leading to frustration.

The media need to back off. Too often we hear a Gus Gould bag out the referees for something that is completely right in the rule book all because it doesn't suit one of his many agendas.

At present it seems like the referees are so unsure of themselves because they know any call they make is going to be scrutinized and if they have a one-sided penalty count they're going to come under some sort of investigation even if those penalties were 100% warranted.
 
Nobody's putting a gun to his head,

If he doesn't like watching the Broncs then ...................wait for it....................... DONT WATCH!

he's from Sydney anyway ... most of the time that is the second game down there (unless it is a blockbuster, which you'd want to watch anyway) and how many people watch the second game these days (unless you support one of the teams).

they play 5 mins of footy, then 20mins of adds ... biggest pain in the ass ever
 
Great wishlist.

He forgot, ditch unprofitable and weak clubs or have them move to expansion regions.

Oh that's right he's a Sharks member.
 
I think we need to do away with the video ref altogether and be like the NFL. Ref reviews his own call by looking at replays on the big screen. It's the only way it's ever going to be consistent from on field call to video call. And like nfl explain the ruling so people aren't wondering what the ref ruled.
 
Literally everything he has said has been said by somebody else before.
 
I didn't even read it, Rothfield's a dribbler.

That is all.
 
Can't really disagree with most of his list.
 
#51 - Ban anyone with a first name of Phil from being involved in the NRL media
 
He's just regurgitated basically every logical 'for' argument anyone's thought of in the past 5 years. Things I agree mostly with (relative to Broncos games): Less Friday games, more day time footy, member discount for food and drink ($5.50 for a Pump water! $9 for 3 chicken things from RR etc), fix the refs, condense SoO - don't care if there's no club games for 3 weeks. The rest of the list, as I said, are mostly fairly good ideas (that aren't his).
 
Members already get discounts for food and drinks as far as I know.

You have to go to the members only lounge for that...
 

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