The NRL is reportedly set to trial yet another rule change in an effort to continue speeding the game up.
It's understood the NRL may look to punish teams for kicking the ball into touch by providing the opposition with a seven-tackle set.
The kick into touch has already lost effectiveness this season with teams having a play the ball instead of a scrum to get play back underway.
For years, players would kick the ball into touch, allowing their forwards to have a break before packing the scrum. The impact of that has been minimised this year as the NRL look to keep the ball in play for as long as possible and increase the pace and fatigue within the game.
Wayne Pearce, who heads up the NRL's innovation committee, told The Sydney Morning Herald that the potential rule change would be discussed at a ARL board meeting early next week.
โAt the moment, when a ball gets kicked into touch, thereโs a turnover and the team can have it in the middle of the field or wherever they want to have it,โ Pearce told the publication.
โMy view is that thereโs a difference between a player running into touch - whether it be trying to score a try or whatever - and a player deliberately kicking into touch to slow the play down.
โSometimes players canโt help going into touch or the ball getting passed into touch, but if the ball is deliberately kicked into touch, then there should be some sort of disincentive.
โThis is only my view - and I havenโt run it past the innovation committee yet - is that we would restart with a seven-tackle set.
โThat then becomes consistent if you kick the ball dead-in-goal. So rather than dead-in-goal, the whole perimeter of the field - if the ball gets kicked out of bounds - then thereโs a seven-tackle restart. It disincentivises some of the teams from kicking into touch and trying to get a slow restart.โ
It's understood that, if the rule is given the green light, then the final match of the regular season - a Channel 9 match - between the Wests Tigers and Canterbury Bulldogs could be used to trial the rule.
Both of those teams are set to be out of finals contention, although the Tigers are holding onto the slimmest of hopes if results go their way, and if they post two enormous wins over the Panthers and Bulldogs in the final fortnight of the season.
The proposed rule changes have already been met with general negativity by players, with Melbourne forward Christian Welch begging the administrators to leave the game alone.
Please just leave our game alone. The tension, grind, pressure & game management almost already gone. Would love the commission for less gimmicking with the rules & more focus on bigger picture strategy
— Christian Welch (@clwelch94) August 26, 2021
Former player Brett Delaney also spoke against the rule, with the general consensus on social media being one of leave the game alone.
More rule changes why? Leave the game alone they already made rule changes and everyoneโs kicked off about the score lines having blowouts. Do the players even get a say? Get the old game back with proper scrums,striking for the ball old school..
— BRETT DELANEY (@brettdelaney15) August 26, 2021
The faster pace of play and rule changes over the last 24 months, with six again's replacing penalties for a large chunk of infringements have been widely blamed for one of the most lopsided seasons in the game's history.
Two teams who sit in the current top eight hold negative for and against records, while whichever team manages to take eighth spot will enter the finals with more losses than wins for the season.
The competition has seen more teams going past 50 than ever before, while likely minor premiers the Melbourne Storm have won 20 of 22 matches, have a positive for and against of 499 and have scored 777 points in 22 games at a staggering 35.3 per contest.
