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Guest column: Six Again with Lyle Beaton

February 14, 2025

BY LYLE BEATON

Simulation, diving

Along with much of the borderline hysterical reporting around the current head high directive in the NRL has been an equally hysterical shrieking around the prospect of increased diving (or simulation) in rugby league. Diving has been part of rugby league as a professional sport for decades. It is usually viewed poorly among players – something which will not change overnight. This in and of itself remains the strongest countermeasure to diving becoming more prevalent in the game.

Due to even greater surveillance of games through increasingly high-definition coverage and even slower slow-motion replays, all of it viewed in real time by the bunker, there is an increased incentive for NRL players to stay down after a high shot – in that it may draw a penalty or sin bin stint that would have otherwise been missed.

The balance between achieving sufficient levels of player safety through the emphasis on non-contact to the head and over-reacting to minor incidents of extremely incidental neck or head contact can be a fairly fine one. Player reaction to the incident is often a key to how the incident is judged by officialdom. The referees have an extremely difficult job as it is trying to police the existing rules of the game without overburdening them with a role in trying to judge the intent of players in high contact incidents.

More and more simulation is likely to be placed on report and dealt with in a judiciary setting, where players will be charged with something along the lines of bringing the game into disrepute. In such a setting, intent will be easier to determine as footage after the incident can also be watched with a view to trying to determine whether the player was in fact injured or feigned injury for a tactical advantage.

Expect more teething difficulties in the months ahead as coaches seek to manipulate the rules around diving as much as possible.

Long term, expect diving to largely be taxed out of existence with the assistance of the judiciary, through the imposition of suspensions and/or fines.

2. Depth of NRL competition/expansion

During this current State of Origin period, much has been written about the supposed lack of quality in the NRL with Origin players removed for the State sides or rested immediately after Origin matches. To an extent, this has been overplayed, when some of the games have been amongst the most entertaining of the season to date.

Few could ask for more in a game of rugby league than was witnessed in the Gold Coast Titans – Sydney Roosters clash on the Gold Coast. A full-time score of 35-34, 12 tries, 10 out of 12 conversions kicked, and a late Sam Walker field goal to win in the dying moments of the game. Controversial and astonishing moments peppered the entire match from start to finish.

While Gold Coast lost the game, the continued form of Jayden Campbell, son of former Penrith, Cronulla and Gold Coast champion, Preston Campbell, in only his second NRL match, showed that really excellent players are waiting desperately in the wings for an opportunity at the big time. Showing some of his father’s superb footwork, Jayden is an extremely nifty and useful fullback or utility back who can turn on an attacking opportunity in the twinkling of an eye. While still looking a little light for NRL football, the wiry Jayden has the potential to be an eye-catching part of the Titans team moving forward.

He is but one of a fleet of burgeoning young players in the game, along with the likes of Reece Walsh (Warriors), Nicho Hynes (Melbourne, Cronulla next season), Sam Walker (Roosters), Harry Grant (Melbourne), and Joseph Suaalii (Roosters), who reflect both the integrity of current pathways and the capacity for the competition to regenerate.

It is also a clear pointer to the fact that the NRL competition is capable of immediate expansion and that the NRL should be looking to an 18-team competition as soon as possible.

3. Season structure in Australia

The other issue which arises out of the depletion of the NRL teams through representative football is the structure of the season in Australia – something which continues to trouble those tasked with the extreme difficulties of working out the draw each year.

In terms of the placement of Origin and other representative games during the NRL season, rugby league has problems which its major Australian domestic competitor, the AFL, does not have. The somewhat vanilla nature of AFL means that it has only the club competition to factor in. Composing a draw is therefore a relatively simple matter.

In contrast, the complicated nature of the rugby league season, needing to accommodate representative football in the form of both interstate and international games during the course of the year, is something the AFL does not need to consider.

The increasing multi-national nature of the NRL involves players who will normally seek a release for international football during the NRL season. While disappointingly absent this year, the mid-year internationals involving teams such as Fiji, Tonga, PNG and Samoa, have been a feature of recent seasons. These games have been threaded amongst the Origin games to create a representative window mid-season, in addition to the now usual playing of international matches post the NRL and Super League seasons in October–November.

The lessons for the game in this respect are to maintain the mid-year window for future representative matches, try to limit the Origin impact as much as possible through careful scheduling and to keep the end of year window open for more structured international football – starting with the World Cup later this year.

4. Origin 1 – Townsville venue

While the first Origin game was a wonderful occasion for another one of Australia’s true rugby league heartlands in northern Queensland, it also showed that the game should be kept in the capital cities around Australia (and perhaps in Auckland) in the near future. The regional capacity stadiums are simply not big enough at the moment for these games.

Townsville did an excellent job of hosting at very short notice – selling out the game in two minutes was quite remarkable in the circumstances – but it is hard not to feel that rugby league missed another great opportunity to sell itself to Melbourne. The recent MCG games have attracted giant crowds of 91,513 (2015) and 87,122 (2018) – crowds which AFL simply cannot attract in rugby league areas.

At a time when expansion is very much central to rugby league’s agenda, such marquee events are invaluable in exposing rugby league to a wider Australian audience, primarily in the “heathen” states of sufficient size, namely, Victoria, South Australia and West Australia.

Alas COVID stepped in and it looks like the next MCG Origin game will be in 2024, with games in Perth (2022) and Adelaide (2023) already locked in.

5. Origin 1 – The match

As expected, the quite brilliant back five of NSW – James Tedesco, Josh Addo-Carr, Latrell Mitchell, Tom Trbojevic and Brian To’o – literally tore Queensland to pieces as the early loss of Christian Welch set Maroon hopes back hugely from nearly the start of the game. This time, rather than repeat offenders Tedesco and Addo-Carr, it was the two NSW centres (Mitchell and Trbojevic) and debutant winger To’o who stood tallest on the Origin stage.

Queensland lacked much of what had earned it a surprise series win late last year in rugby league’s first COVID affected season – defensive tenacity, attacking variety and commitment to the northern cause.

It will take an absolutely massive effort from debutant Queensland coach Paul Green to turn around the first match defeat in this series. Unless Cameron Munster can turn in two successive blinders, something he is capable of doing based on last year’s series, it is hard to see Queensland even troubling the scoreboard in this series, with NSW looking increasingly in the box seat for a 3-0 series whitewash.

6. NRLW Competition

Finally, it was refreshing to see the NRL give female rugby league an overdue boost with the addition of new sides to the NRLW competition for this season. While it was unfortunate to see the NZ Warriors step down temporarily due to COVID issues, they will most likely be reinstated to the competition down the track when international travel becomes more settled.

In the interim, the 2021 competition will be a six-team one featuring the existing teams of Brisbane, Sydney Roosters and St George, with new sides at Gold Coast, Newcastle and Parramatta added.

While there are of course other lower-level women’s competitions at Queensland and NSW level based below the NRLW, the NRLW undoubtedly is both the face and the showroom of Australian women’s rugby league – together with Women’s State of Origin and the Jillaroos.

After a period of inactivity at the NRL level, it is good to see rugby league pushing forward in this area. Participation in rugby league among females is one of the true growth areas for the sport in Australia and the more direct pathways available to young girls the better.

In time, the NRLW should aim to mirror the men’s NRL competition and have women’s teams in place for all of the 16 teams in the NRL competition – together with any expansion teams which are created subsequently.