THE RL1908 BLOG
News, Reviews & Opinion - Sean Fagan - RL1908.com
In announcing that the NRL's golden-point may be replaced by a golden-try, CEO David Gallop offered in The Daily Telegraph: "I see merit in avoiding a field goal-a-thon.
But we need to look at the ramifications of dealing with that." The same report had NSW captain Danny Buderus putting forward the timeless truism: "A team that scores a try deserves to win more than a team that kicks a field goal." Meanwhile Wests Tigers' coach Tim Sheens stated: "It can become boring hit-up, hit-up, field goal. That's not what the game is about."
Putting aside the merits of having extra-time at all, I am at loss to see how a victory by a golden-point field goal is less glorious than a field goal kicked in the 79th minute. The concern seems to be that referees won't give penalties to decide matches in extra time
- but they don't do it in the last ten minutes of normal time either.
As Sheens rightly points out: "Referees only give mandatory penalties, not discretionary penalties." (Which means accidental infringements are penalised, while deliberate breaches are ignored e.g. innocuous head-slaps are penalised, while tackled players deliberately walking off the mark, or defenders intentionally going early from the 10m defense line are invariably ignored.)
Choosing not to give a penalty, is still in itself a decision - perhaps referees ought to be encouraged to enforce the rules, then players wouldn't push referees/rules to the limit.
And what is so wrong with a "field-goal-a-thon" anyway? For me, when I see an attempt to kick a field goal, I see an aspect of the game's past - when the code began in 1895 the 4-point field goal was one of the chief means of scoring points. Rugby league's first stars were lauded for their skills at dropping goals - and they didn't have the benefit of defenders starting 10m away! The golden-point has brought back a need for this skill.
Rather than avoiding the real problem (an absence of kicking skills) and thus turning extra-time into handball matches (by banning field and penalty goals), coaches ought to work on improving their field goal plays - the resultant "field-goal-a-thon" would soon disappear if the kickers were better exponents of the art.
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