I had the pleasure of his company on a jolly boys day out at Elland Road for a GB test v Australia, the coach stopped to pick up a mystery guest en route at Ainsley Top on the M62, and it was him.

He was the half time speaker and was full of it on the journey. From memory, and I'm sure this won't come as a surprise he was quite unapologetic about his Yorkshire bias and his refereeing in general, a case of decisions being made based on meritocracy as he saw fit, with transgressions being let go if the victim was asking for it.

The good old days

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/r ... es-9767295

https://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/sport/r ... es-9767295

Happy to see the clampdown on the play acting and attempts to get penalties

Absolutely. It was getting silly & needed action. 2 minutes missing game time should do the trick.

I don't understand the drop out thing.

There will be more teams trying to kick short drop outs (i.e just over 10m line). If it fails to reach the ten metre line all that happens is that the kicking team lose the ball rather than a penalty.

As was the case in NRL last year. It reduces the value of a good short kicking game significantly. It might increase Toby King's value immensely.

Not watched the NRL but I'd guess drop outs will suddenly become a contest with lots of collisions. Did that happen?

I'd say something like 60% of drop outs became short drop outs. Some very high with no angle but more out on either side to the centre area. Of those, I reckon about half were retained by the defending team. About 10% probably resulted in the tap to the attacking team.

Thank you. That is quite a change to the game.
In a sport that is trying hard to reduce injury I think this might cause collisions as balls in the air with lots of players attacking the ball is bound to cause the odd problem.

All I know about short kick-offs is it cost Brisbane a grand final win. Commanding lead and 3 times went with short drop out which Penrith scored from. At the time I was perplexed as to why they didn’t just hoof it up the field. Fine if you are chasing points and want to get the ball back but not when you have a good lead.

There doesn't seem to be much relationship between the score and whether they go long or short. More that some coaches/teams just seem to like it. And some players go short pretty much all the time.

I haven't noticed that many big collisions, probably less than a forward charging it back in off a long drop out.

Very interesting. I suppose I always watch out for players getting battered from high kicks. In this case the defenders all start from just over 10 yards away. The kickers will be practising their short drop out skills from tomorrow morning & ought to be good at it by the start of the season. Those receiving the kicks will be working on subtle obstructions & looking forward to the relatively new fun of catching a high ball under pressure. Full backs & wingers have traditionally had the sole pleasure but soon the joy of catching a high ball with opposition approaching will be enjoyed by all.

The other rule tweaked regarding players being offside at kicks not being pinged unless they interfere with play. How many try’s did we see chalked off even when the player within 10 had no effect on the outcome. Glad to see common sense prevailed at last.