You have skipped the navigation, tab for page content
Fans to be part of 'significant' review into rule changes: Annesley

Fans, players, clubs and officials will be called on to provide feedback about rule changes as part of a "fairly significant" review by the ARL Commission.

NRL head of football Graham Annesley confirmed on Monday there would be a game-wide evaluation of the new adaptions - including the 10-metre infringement rule - with the ARL Commission to ultimately decide whether anything needs tweaking in 2022.

Other laws introduced this season have included two-point field goals outside the 40-metre line, play-the-ball restarts after the ball has gone into touch and the Bunker reviewing tries that have been awarded.

"[A review] is in the process of starting," Annesley said.

"We want to get feedback from all of our clubs, from our players, our officials, coaches, from the general public, so we'll be conducting some research with fans.

Re-signed Brailey sees big future at Knights

"This is all under the banner of the ARLC and their responsibility to review what's happened across the course of the season.

"[ARLC chairman] Peter V'landys has gone very public, as has [NRL CEO] Andrew Abdo, to say that everything will be reviewed at the end of the year, so we've put a process in place to do that.

"It's not going to be just an internal review - everyone will have the opportunity to have their say that is a stakeholder in the game.

"I think that there is a general view that the game doesn't need too much many more changes at this point.

Episode 28 - Finals preview with Fittler, bottom eight report card

"We need to look at the impact the rule changes have had on the game and make an assessment about the benefit or detriment, depending on your point of view, that some of the changes may have made.

"Did they work as they were supposed to work? Generally speaking, I think our game again is in good shape.

"If you have a look at all of our indicators, our television ratings and so forth, they're in really good shape. But that's not the be-all and end-all, it's about the stakeholders and what they think."

Annesley said the "downtown" rule could be one aspect that would benefit from a minor alteration in interpretation next season.

Designed to stop chasers from racing upfield and swarming a kick receiver, a player is deemed to be downtown if they are in front of the play-the-ball area before the ball is booted.

Downtown chasers aren't allowed to get involved in the action again until the next tackle and can't be run onside by another player.

Annesley praised the officials a couple of weeks ago, when a touch judge correctly informed the referee that Rabbitohs prop Mark Nicholls had gone downtown before he picked up an error by the Panthers.

Get Caught Up: Round 25 must-see moments

However, Annesley admitted the officials in Saturday's Brisbane-Newcastle game got it wrong as they failed to call Broncos forward Kobe Hetherington downtown before he scored the first try.

The Bunker can't rule on live play, so policing the downtown rule is the responsibility of the referee and the touch judges.

"It might be the wording of the rule itself, it might be that it needs just a slight tweak," Annesley said.

Brisbane play to the whistle for the opener to Hetherington

"It wouldn't change the outcome. You don't want half the team haring off downfield waiting to surround a [catcher] when he receives the ball.

"But it might be just a matter of, for example, is it that the player can't be in front of the play-the-ball before the ball's kicked - as it is now - or the player can't be in front of the play-the-ball before the ball is played?

"Which might be easier to rule on. It has same largely the same impact. With some of our rules, I think we should be looking at just how easy or difficult they are for the people who are match officials to pick them up.

"If it's hard to pick that up, it will just lead to inconsistency because sometimes they'll get picked up and sometimes they won't.

"So if we can find a way to make it easier and more consistent, then that should be one of our objectives.

"We've had some blowouts this year and we need to look at that and try and find out why that's happened and what's contributed to it," Annesley added.

"And again, there could be a number of factors that have contributed to that. You just have to be careful about not knee-jerking on those and make sure you consider them properly."

 

Don't Blink or you'll miss a moment of the NRL finals - tickets are on sale now at NRL Tickets

Acknowledgement of Country

North Queensland Cowboys respect and honour the Traditional Custodians of the land and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and future. We acknowledge the stories, traditions and living cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples on the lands we meet, gather and play on.