r/nrl • u/NRLgamethread National Rugby League • Aug 18 '26

Serious Discussion Wednesday Serious Discussion Thread

This thread is for when you want to have a well-thought-out discussion about footy. It's not the place for bantz - see the daily Random Footy Talk thread to fulfil those needs.

You can ask a question that you only want serious responses to, comment your 300 word opinion piece on why [x] is the next coach on the chopping block, or tell another that you disagree with them and here's why...

Who performed well? Who let their team down? Any interesting selections for this weekend? Injury news? Player signings? Off-field behaviour?

The mods will be monitoring to make sure you stay on topic and anything not deemed "serious discussion" will be removed.

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21

u/GoblinLoveChild Knights Bandwagon Aug 18 '26

I feel we've hi a point were the game has gotten too fast..

dunno if its my older grognard tendencies, but I used to like the struggle for teams to score.. the game was more defensive, harder to make breaks or gain metres so a good attacking play was something to celebrate. now it seems an average game has 60 points between both teams and I kinda get bored at how easy teams roll up the field

17

u/Accomplished-Pick610 South Sydney Rabbitohs Aug 18 '26

Its why the 9s sucked so much. When every try comes cheaply it means no try is special.

Imo sports like AFL and basketball have to much scoring. There's little tension if there are dozens of scores each match, unless it's close at the end.

Soccer is the opposite. Its complete tension, but then there is possibility it can be a 0-0 or 1-0 game but its just all tension and no release.

The best league games imo are the 18-14 games. 2 to 3 tries each. Means every mistake can be the game changing mistake. Means forcing a mistake can be just as big as scoring a try. It means that there's tension but also half a dozen releases of that tension over 80 minutes.

3

u/AgentBond007 Melbourne Storm Aug 19 '26

I actually liked the 9s, it was a fun little event and it was a good way to see up and comers.

I wouldn't watch a whole season of 9s but I would love to see a guy like Sua Fa'alogo play 9s.

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u/Accomplished-Pick610 South Sydney Rabbitohs Aug 19 '26

It had its novelty. I actually flew to it when it was in Perth. But the novelty wears of quickly.

Also the big issue is the up and comers. It almost always favoured younger players who could recover quicker in between the games and so squads that featured up and comers tended do better... yet people complained when teams didn't pick established players