The way the game is being played and adjudicated at the moment is really starting to damage the nrl product. Players forcing the refs hand by staying down, refusing to play the ball until the play has been reviewed. Players going to ground either in defence on collision with decoy runners or in attack chasing kicks. It’s all starting to sound like soccer and from my experience a large percentage of league fans despise that game.
Soccer as a game is a great game. It’s the spirit it’s played in and the way it’s officiated that a lot of league fans can’t tolerate. I fear this is what the nrl is becoming.
10 years ago the players themselves wouldn’t allow their peers to behave like this. But there has clearly been a shift and from here it’s a slippery slope. The more that players get away with, the more it will happen.
The nrl need to get tough on this now or risk losing bulk crowds. It’s one thing for decisions to be annoying or frustrating. It’s another for the game not to be standing for the basic values and principles their fan base believes in. Things like honesty, integrity, sportsmanship. Lose those and suddenly it’s a pretty unattractive game.