The ruck

[silvertail]

Melbourne's exploitation of the ruck is a blight on our game. Their success is built on winning the ruck in most situations. Bellamy is not a genius, he is the grub that introduced the wrestle in league. In defence, they wrestle, and slow down the ruck. In attack, their robots spring off their feet and allow Smith to cause havoc from dummy half. On at least 3 occasions, in our semi loss last year, Smith turned our slow markers inside out leading to tries.

The ruck in our modern game is a contest, but it shouldn't be! The tackle should be effected, their should be a clean play the ball and the ball should be released from the ruck without any initial advantage to either team.

The obsession with a speedy play the ball is not needed in league. Arko was smart enough to move the defensive line back from 5m to 10m. That's far back enough to turn the whole game into a fair contest, a battle contested by guile halves and stoic forwards. Think back to the Cliffy Lyons days. No wrestle back then, and Cliffy's sublime skills were our competitive advantage.

Last years, our halves were chocked. Moving forward, if they were able to play the game with the ruck being a non event, then their would be no other better halves combination in the league. Our team would smack Melbourne on every occasion.

My solution to the ruck problem is this:

1. Anything that looks like a wrestle is a penalty and usually defined as working the player whilst upright or on the ground
2. Marker and guy playing the ball must be allowed to stand upright in the ruck
3. Marker must take one step back from the ruck area
4. Guy playing the ball must use both hands to place the ball on the ground and cleanly strike the ball between his legs

That's right folks, the most radical suggestion here is that players must use both hands to play the ball.

Our current halves would win us a bag of trophies and Bellamy would be left wondering what other grubby tactic he could introduce to wreck our game.

 

[The Who]

I agree with the first three points but can't see the need for two hands to play the ball.

Rest of your dissertation is spot on.

 

[Rex]

Agree that we should fix games being decided by speed of play the ball tactics.

Excess speed of the play the ball was introduced by Murdoch's Superleague (another "genius" move by Harrigan?). Players were submitting in the tackle to get this roll on. Since then we've had a variety of rule changes trying to deal with the effects of this change introduced by Superleague.

Players at the elite level are now fitter, stronger, faster, better defensively organised, with more interchanges etc. So the attack is disadvantaged over past generations if some action is not taken.

Here's one solution:

1. The referee should call held when they assess the tackle is sufficiently completed and a FIXED and measured timeframe be given for the tacklers to get off. Let's say 3 seconds. With a handheld device to beep when the time is up. All wrestling tactics become nullified, and low spectacular scything tackles a la Beaver become rewarded again.

2. To give a different benefit to the attacking team in place of fast play the balls, only two simulataneous tacklers are allowed. Gets rid of strip laws and a raft of other rule changes introduced since the distortion of SuperLeague to deal with gang tackling, submissive/dominant tackles, wrestling, etc.

 

[silvertail]

Agree Rex, super league has a lot to answer for. The scums 1999 victory was the most unworthy of all victories. They were practically playing the ball before getting tackled and Kimmorley did not have to be a genius with his flat line attack.

The other problem is that administrators of SOO still think fast play the balls are needed for a good game. Over the last 10 years we have seen the same trend. The season starts off with slower play the balls, picks up speed at SOO time and becomes ripe for Melbourne come semis with their complementary wrestle tactics.

 

[eagleE]

I think the answeris moresimple. Go backto the old days when refs had balls to call a penalty when it was needed. If the refs penalise the teams they wont be pushing it anymore. Hasler is a classic at this. He will push he sides to challenge the refs to penalise by standing offside, holding down in the ruck. The refs do not want to be an issue so they dont blow the whistle. This was very much evident in our semi final encouter with them last season. How many times were they offisde. Anderson needs to give his refs approval to blow a penalty when needed. Then Smith and histeammates wont hold down the opposition so much.
The other reason Storm win is the just play more consistently good football than anybodyelse but that is another thread in itself.

 

[Brissie Kid]

This is the logic you are fighting against. Sometimes I think the fans are watching a completely different sport to those directly involved in the game. When did this below come to be accepted as playing rugby league?

Wayne Bennett.

''The attacking player in the game at the moment gets no reward for using his feet, no reward for winning the contest to going to ground so he can get a better play-the-ball,'' he said.

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/league-news/bennett-urges-crackdown-on-blight-of-ruck-wrestling-20130217-2el7u.html

 

[jbb/james]

I think the referees are the element here, as the ruck speed differs so much depending on the refs. How can teams predict and train for such variables

I have felt for a long time that a small timing device is needed, Strapped to the refs hand, once a tackle has been completed he makes a fist, which starts the clock. Its set a 3, 4, 5 seconds whatever. At that time it buzzes in his hand . If the players have not sufficiently cleared the ruck, a penalty is blown

This same device has a built in whistle for convenience

He is still allowed to use discretion in some cases of entanglement or similar but most decisions are based on this, especially with the two ref system

I hate the quick ruck as much as most but i hate the inconsistent approach even more

as for some of the other points attacking teams can still use cliffy tactics if they stand deep but they choose not to. This is not a result of ruck speed more the choice of attacking formations, they set themselves. If cherry and foz stand deeper and stagger the backline it will achieve the same result

 

[silvertail]

Yes, whatever happened to he deep back line?