To kick off, or not to kick off? That is the question.
After the first barrier trial of the NRL’s new kick-off rule, road-tested by last year’s grand finalists in a “dead rubber” no one could have predicted, we have been left without a definitive answer.
It was mooted as a momentum changer, potentially even a game changer for rugby league. A chance for the team that concedes points to decide whether to kick off or receive the football from the resumption. It added further intrigue, if any was required, for a match in which Adam Reynolds watched the action from the same Suncorp Stadium grandstand as the fans that came to farewell him. Yet it was triggered just three times in 80 minutes and had no discernible impact on the result.
“I do like the game the way it is,” Broncos coach Michael Maguire said. “It’s a great game. We don’t need to tinker too far, especially the way the game is going at the moment.”
Melbourne captain Harry Grant echoed those sentiments.
Like the six-again rule, no one could predict what it would look like until we saw it. Could this provide a weak team with a chance to turn the tide on a stronger one without needing to train harder, recruit more judiciously or sack their coach? Is this the future of the game? Or will this join the Manly-Norths merger and Chis Anderson’s one-marker defence at the Roosters as the greatest failed experiments in football history?
There were ample opportunities – 12 tries were scored on Thursday night – to find out.
Yet almost every time the Broncos conceded points – as was the case on five separate occasions in the first half alone – they opted to give the ball straight back to the visitors. Perhaps it was the right call, given errors were forced in several sets after restarts.
The entire opening stanza expired and no one had the courage to try something different. Early in the second half, however, Brisbane scored a try that featured no less than three kicks, two launched by Ben Hunt.
And then, in the 52nd minute, rugby league history was created. Hunt was required to again put boot to ball when the Storm asked the Broncos to kick off. The fact that Melbourne winger Moses Leo was in the sin bin would have figured heavily in captain Harry Grant’s decision to starve the opposition of the football.
As far as kick-offs go, that one from Hunt could be described as neither short nor long. The success rate for retrieving the football from short restarts this season is just 25 per cent. Hunt hedged his bets in launching a kick-off of indeterminate distance, and the Storm came away with the spoils.
Brisbane belatedly got into the act. Having mounted a mini revival, they decided to receive the football when it was snuffed out with a Sualauvi Fa’alogo try. And then we witnessed a third and final triggering of the rule change when the Storm elected to receive after Ezra Mam’s second try. The Broncos duly kicked off short and regathered the ball. Maybe they should have done it more often.
In some respects, it was fitting that these teams were chosen to be the NRL’s first guinea pigs. There’s every chance that Brisbane’s Reece Walsh-inspired comeback in last year’s grand final would not have happened under the experimental rule. But with Walsh sitting alongside Reynolds in the casualty ward, there was no miracle comeback this time around.
So what have we learned?
If this new initiative was introduced to end blowouts, it failed first up. Perhaps that’s partly attributable to Brisbane’s reticence to trigger a kick-receive. Or maybe because form teams will always find a way to hammer struggling ones.
“I’m not a fan, to be fair,” Storm star Cameron Munster told Nine after full-time.
“I know what they’re trying to do with the game, but it’s not going to stop those momentum swings.
“Sometimes you need to talk to the players as well, we’re not robots. We’re all about growing the game and developing it, but it would be nice if we sometimes talk to the players’ association.
“Maybe in trials next year you could experiment with it. It hurts and it stings a little bit because we’re not playing finals, we’re pretty much [lab] rats tonight.”
We will see a further trial of the rule when the Dragons take on the Eels next week. There may be another “dead rubber” game that emerges before the regular season ends. But we’ll need to see a larger sample size before deciding whether it’s something we want to see more of.
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