There's a lot of downtime and boredom I imagine. You can't train all day (unless you are a swimmer) and you can only watch so many match videos. I guess you also forget the influence of "mates" as well. A lot of rugby lads come with "baggage". Especially in RL which is so geographically limited.

I don't doubt it.

We have a club run out to Ponte for a good drink every now and again and 2015 we were there after the GF and Zak and Kallum were in having a few bevvies, the amount of people around them in their group was massive.

You can only trust your judgement and sometimes its the oldest friends who take the P more as they know you've been mates longer so try it on more.

Its a hard path to walk.

On topic, I watched the Leeds v Fev CC semi from 1995. Jesus the defence was awful from both teams. However, I did hear something during the commentary about the 10 metre rule and I am pretty sure that 94/95 season was when 5 went to 10 metres, which probably explains the huge distance between the attackers and defenders at every PTB. That took some getting used to and probably explains why I remember a lot of games from that era as shoot outs.

All the more so towards the end of the season. You had the perfect storm of tired players and a firm surface with the game speeding up signficantly as a result. If you were a betting man in the early to mid 90s there came a point in the season, usually from mid March onwards, where you could just clean up going with the overs on total points.

Watched the 3 games against Bradford from 2002, 2004 & 2005

Id forgotten how good those games were when our rivalry was at its peak, really enjoyed the 2002 game it had everything.

A stark reminder of how the game has been spoiled by wrestle.

It's sort of crept up on us (wrestle that is) and is now an integral and in my opinion completely detrimental part of the game.

Players learning how to defend properly and having more structure in defence has made it a different game but not neccessarily a worse or better sport. Its just not it used to be and thats how it should be, the game should evolve.

A quick PTB puts the onus on the side with the ball to do things, well, quickly. This favours sides best at handling and best at running and is the game at its most enjoyable for me. I don't actually mind the wrestle too much but multiple tacklers just lying on involves zero skill and less entertainment.

Theres a lot of skill in the wrestling techniques players are using. We just dont appreciate it enough cos it doesnt lead to fast flowing rugby.

Personally i find the NRL too fast and teams can just roll down the field and it bores me to tears so theres a balance to be struck.

The game is just different now and in 10 years time will be different again.

When we had a quicker play the ball people complained it was too fast and there were too many 'blow out scores'. I actually think RL fans in general just like to whinge. The game is too fast, then it's too slow. We need more players in the NRL to improve the national team, we need to stop the player drain to the NRL. We need to change the structure...we need to change the structure again. We need to scrap promotion and relegation, promotion and relegation is part our sporting DNA. We need to expand the game, the expansion clubs bring nothing to game.

saints v leeds in 08. thick mud, driving rain, one out football.
what a game