NRL

This week I’ll be skipping any analysis of the pace of the game, for a few reasons. The first is something I alluded to last week, which is that we’ve hit a decent threshold of data points, the affect of the new rules is relatively clear and the impact of fatigue is still obvious. The second is that friend of the site Liam of PythagoNRL fame has put together the best summary to date of the impact of the new rule changes on margin and form. It’s well worth your time to read through it. And I’m not just saying...

With three rounds and 24 games complete in season 2021, it’s becoming pretty clear what affect the new rule changes are having NRL this season. There are no dramatic shifts as we saw with the introduction of set restarts and reverting to one referee, but there are noticeable trends of what is (or isn’t happening). The confirmation of Condensed Rugby League theory I have mentioned condensed rugby league previously, where we’re seeing the same amount of rugby league shoehorned into a shorter period of time, and it’s looking increasingly apparent that is what we’re seeing in 2021. Whether or not...

Rugby League is back for 2021 and so is the Eye Test. Hopefully I’ll avoid the sophmore slump that follows many rookie seasons, but I can’t promise anything other than a lot of talk about Daniel Alvaro, Chrsitian Welch, and if Friday is anything to go by, Isaiah Papali’i. Round 1 of the NRL season featured a lot of talk about how the was game marred by six again calls and that matches were too fast, but they were hardly the worst thing on the field this weekend, which would go to the Parramatta Eels horrific away jerseys. But I...

One of the outcomes of the introduction of set restarts after Round 3 in 2020 was an increased time in play, which artificially inflated a lot of numbers and not necessarily in a good way. It claimed to speed up the game, but mostly just resulted in more “stuff” happening in the middle of the field. Six more tackles from a ruck infringement usually just meant they restarted their set as they would from any other spot on the field – three to four one out runs before spreading the ball before an attacking kick. This isn’t new information. It’s...