RFL new penalties for games postponed due to COVID : Wed Jan 05, 2022 5:11 pm  

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/59884125 Confirmation, not that we needed it, of the muppets who rule/ruin our game.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/59884125 Confirmation, not that we needed it, of the muppets who rule/ruin our game.

Re: RFL new penalties for games postponed due to COVID : Thu Jan 06, 2022 8:50 am  

The only good thing about this - if anything - is that it is a proposal.

It's a totally and utterly bol**ck-stupid proposal. Or is it the way it has been written by the BBC?

Muppets - whoever.

A loss of the 'average' winning margin from last season should be used, or the 24 point difference applied again.

I'd go further and say that scrums should only be introduced after a mid season review based on actual impact the virus has had on players, and that the winners of the league should be percentage based again with a mid season review.

The piece comes across as being punitive by the authorities.
They put pressure on the clubs and - by inference - to the players. It's simply not needed.
The game has far bigger issues to positively address.

Re: RFL new penalties for games postponed due to COVID : Thu Jan 06, 2022 10:21 am  

I see it as a good thing.
Everyone needs to get on with it. Same goes for sports.
If you can't field a team. Tough.
The things is. If you keep doing the points percentage. Year after year for something that isn't going to go away. When is it going to end.
Sometimes you just have to move forward. Get on and continue the sport as well as your lives. Otherwise your going to be left behind.
And that doesn't just count for rugby. It counts for every sport and everyone's lives. Things need to go back to normal. How they were pre 2020. Quickly otherwise the public perception that is already changing. Will further change. And riots may ensue do the restrictions and other hanges they are looking to bring in.
Look at tennis. The world number 1 doing denied entry to Australia. If he doesn't play that devalues the 1st tennis major of the year and expect heavy sanctions from world tennis to the australian open.
Rugby league is being too nice. The world Cup should have gone ahead last year. And was strong armed into postponing it because Australia and New Zealand rugby didn't want to play. Tough. The tournament should have gone ahead. And Australia and New Zealand should have been heavily fined for not turning up.

Re: RFL new penalties for games postponed due to COVID : Thu Jan 06, 2022 11:26 am  

So reading that suspicions that some were bending the rules? Regarding dropping the percentage that is also good it stops the picking of games to miss to keep your percentage high.

Re: RFL new penalties for games postponed due to COVID : Thu Jan 06, 2022 12:14 pm  

Perhaps the England cricketers should have played the covid card.. I think scrums should be left alone for at least another season but 48 points seems draconian.

Re: RFL new penalties for games postponed due to COVID : Thu Jan 06, 2022 12:25 pm  

chris2925 wrote:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-league/59884125

Confirmation, not that we needed it, of the muppets who rule/ruin our game.

What do you object to?

It's needed as last season we saw several teams deliberately planning their schedules. Look at the games Hull KR played and the ones they were unfortunately unable to fulfil and tell me there wasn't a pattern to it. Cas the same. The one game Saints called off which enabled a two week recovery after the Challenge Cup final etc.

Don't forget teams should have reserve teams next year in addition to their academy players. There might still be times where a club is unfortunately punished for reasons beyond their control, but at least this would incentivise the clubs to have stringent covid policies and adhere to them. Teams like Cas were woefully unprofessional last year and could just postpone as many games as they wanted to.

Looking at the Premier League, you can see how the weak rules there have ruined football. Foreign managers who don't agree with congested fixture schedules around Christmas and New Year have managed to remove all those fixtures and the current wave of postponements is entirely political. Managers want fewer games, but the same money, players have been pampered into believing there are welfare issues with them playing 50 football matches in a season. Liverpool's massively coincidental covid outbreak that affects them just as they lose their best players to the ACON? Does anyone really believe they really couldn't field a team and don't suspect their lack of appetite for playing is because Salah and Mane aren't there? If we allowed SL clubs to have the same flexibility as to whether they play games or not, we'd see hardly any games being played. Why bother playing a home game against Catalans for example? You are likely to lose and likely to have a poorly attended game. Why bother? Same with Saints, why play them away when you are likely going to lose? Why not focus on more winnable games to maintain the points percentage?

Re: RFL new penalties for games postponed due to COVID : Thu Jan 06, 2022 9:02 pm  

Saddened,

Paragraph 2 almost sounds Trump-esque! 'We won, you cheated'.

Seriously though, are you suggesting clubs 'faked' covid test results?
That would be so easy to check up on that it's not a credible argument.

So I assume you must be referring to clubs saying their players aren't available through a combination of covid and injury. That's possible I suppose. Most clubs have around 30 named players in their squad so that means more than 13 would need to fall into those categories...... mmm.

Re: RFL new penalties for games postponed due to COVID : Fri Jan 07, 2022 1:10 am  

fez1 wrote:

Saddened,

Paragraph 2 almost sounds Trump-esque! 'We won, you cheated'.

Seriously though, are you suggesting clubs 'faked' covid test results?
That would be so easy to check up on that it's not a credible argument.

So I assume you must be referring to clubs saying their players aren't available through a combination of covid and injury. That's possible I suppose. Most clubs have around 30 named players in their squad so that means more than 13 would need to fall into those categories...... mmm.

Last season yes I totally am saying clubs exploited it. You could name players as close contacts of anyone who had a positive test. So one player getting covid could result in enough being named as contacts to get a game off. Cas once named their entire first team and entire academy as close contacts. I had an exchange on Twitter over that with their club Doctor and he assured me it was genuine. I'm sure it was from a medical perspective, but how can a club who have proper covid protocols allow ALL their playing stock to be in the same place at the same time? I was critical of Saints when we did it too. We could easily have played the game after Wembley, but got it called off to give ourselves a two week break. We didn't cheat in that the rules were weak, but we cynically exploited the regulations to suit our season, which isn't right. Last season there would likely always have been someone in a club with covid, so it was wide open for abuse.

This coming season is incredibly likely to see more covid cases. Omicron is everywhere and unless it burns through quickly and rates drop drastically, there are going to be cases at each club all the time, at least until it's warmer. If clubs could just add the injured to their covid positives and get the game off, it would again be wide open to be exploited, like is happening in football.

Re: RFL new penalties for games postponed due to COVID : Fri Jan 07, 2022 2:55 pm  

I understand your points and agree to an extent.
Obviously you've taken the time to try to make sense of this mess. Fair play.

The rules regarding self isolation have changed somewhat now and I do suspect they will be loosened further in tbe coming weeks - once the numbers start to come down (my guess - and it is purely a guess - is that this will be in mid/late February), so whether we'll really get a repeat of 2021 is anyones guess.
Its certainly worth understanding why the likes of Cas appear to have been in the position they have been, and to get them to change their 'standards' and 'behaviours'. What I don't want to see is players put under pressure to play when they either have covid, are in the recovery phase or are self isolating in line with government guidelines (player welfare etc). We already have too many players playing through the pain barrier for the sake of the team. (The number of end of season operations is quite frightening).
I know you're not suggesting that.

It may come to the stage where we all have to 'live with it' - but I could imagine some further restrictions put in place. (Not lockdown as such though).
Anyway let's see. I think there will be a few more twists and turns before the season starts.

Not aware of figures for the players not vaccinated.
In soccer it's about 25% from what I last heard a few weeks ago.
I did hear rumours of players not being allowed to play unless vaccinated because of the nature of contact sport. Interesting times.