Interesting comments made by Wilkin on players health.. : Wed Apr 22, 2009 4:31 pm  

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 010091.stm He does have a good point with the greater speed/body weight of modern day SL players there must surely be a tipping-point when serious injuries will become more prevalent in the game.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/rugby_l ... 010091.stm He does have a good point with the greater speed/body weight of modern day SL players there must surely be a tipping-point when serious injuries will become more prevalent in the game.

: Wed Apr 22, 2009 9:24 pm  

Wonder who would win in a superstars esque competition with a leading Super league player and a leading Premiership footballer. would probably pan out as would be expected but from looks of many players in Super league, there is still far to go to a 'limit'

: Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:34 pm  

Start wearing pads, helmets and allow forward passing may be the answer.

Do we need to change the name of the game though if this happens ??

: Wed Apr 22, 2009 11:39 pm  

Watched something about this on Inside Sport on monday night, although the focus was on Union. The idea was right that rugby players these days tend to be bigger and therefore the collisions are bigger therefore increasing the chances of bad injuries. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/inside_sport/8012259.stm Although its union, its still very current to RL.

Watched something about this on Inside Sport on monday night, although the focus was on Union. The idea was right that rugby players these days tend to be bigger and therefore the collisions are bigger therefore increasing the chances of bad injuries. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tv_and_radio/inside_sport/8012259.stm Although its union, its still very current to RL.

: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:23 am  

Wire On The Telly wrote: Wonder who would win in a superstars esque competition with a leading Super league player and a leading Premiership footballer. would probably pan out as would be expected but from looks of many players in Super league, there is still far to go to a 'limit' http://www.greatestathlete.com.au/#/about Saw this show when I was down under. Billy Slater up against Lote Tuqiri, Andrew Symonds, AFL star Brett Deledio, top A-League footballer Joel Griffith the Ironman champion and a few others in various challenges. Slater absolutely walked it, I think some racing driver came second. It was interesting to see what a top all-round sportsman he was.

Wire On The Telly wrote: Wonder who would win in a superstars esque competition with a leading Super league player and a leading Premiership footballer. would probably pan out as would be expected but from looks of many players in Super league, there is still far to go to a 'limit' http://www.greatestathlete.com.au/#/about Saw this show when I was down under. Billy Slater up against Lote Tuqiri, Andrew Symonds, AFL star Brett Deledio, top A-League footballer Joel Griffith the Ironman champion and a few others in various challenges. Slater absolutely walked it, I think some racing driver came second. It was interesting to see what a top all-round sportsman he was.

: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:28 am  

MrF wrote:

Start wearing pads, helmets and allow forward passing may be the answer.

Do we need to change the name of the game though if this happens ??

To Rugby Union?

: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:47 am  

It's natural evolution and people wanting to get better, bigger and faster, all we could do is bring in some rule changes to slow the game down, narrow the distance from the ruck to the defensive line to 5m so it becomes less about winding up and crashing through the line and more about finding space and creating angles with passing movements and running lines; change the interchange rule to make it that when you sub a player he can't come back on (like football).

There are some interesting comments in Mal Reilly's autobiography, which he wrote in 2000, he was worried then about the way the game was going with the head down, battering ram type forward, he mentioned Martin Lang and Stuart Fielden who were emerging at the time and said he worried about the longevity of their careers and what they'd do to their bodies.

Martin Lang had 10 concussions by the time he was 27 and retired at 28.
Stuart Fielden had burnt out at age 26 and was never the same player after.
Reilly was right.

: Thu Apr 23, 2009 11:52 am  

sally cinnamon wrote:

It's natural evolution and people wanting to get better, bigger and faster, all we could do is bring in some rule changes to slow the game down, narrow the distance from the ruck to the defensive line to 5m so it becomes less about winding up and crashing through the line and more about finding space and creating angles with passing movements and running lines; change the interchange rule to make it that when you sub a player he can't come back on (like football).

There are some interesting comments in Mal Reilly's autobiography, which he wrote in 2000, he was worried then about the way the game was going with the head down, battering ram type forward, he mentioned Martin Lang and Stuart Fielden who were emerging at the time and said he worried about the longevity of their careers and what they'd do to their bodies.

Martin Lang had 10 concussions by the time he was 27 and retired at 28.
Stuart Fielden had burnt out at age 26 and was never the same player after.

I think players (especially the big props) have to consider how they run with the ball. I think this is one of the reasons Morley has been able to keep going at the top of his game. Rather than being like Fielden who's game was to just run as hard and fast as he could, which I agree has knackered him out.
Morley has changed his game over the years, and doesn't necessarily try and go through every tackle, or stand up wrestling three or four defenders like a tough man, he simply makes his yards and goes down and gets a quick play the ball.
I think Fielden needs to adopt this kind of tactic if he wants to becom one of the top 10 props in the league again.

: Thu Apr 23, 2009 2:08 pm  

FireWire wrote:

http://www.greatestathlete.com.au/#/about

Saw this show when I was down under. Billy Slater up against Lote Tuqiri, Andrew Symonds, AFL star Brett Deledio, top A-League footballer Joel Griffith the Ironman champion and a few others in various challenges.

Slater absolutely walked it, I think some racing driver came second. It was interesting to see what a top all-round sportsman he was.

Yes i seen that, but i bet someone like christiano Ronaldo or Kaka would possibly wipe the floor with most of them, if not all.

: Thu Apr 23, 2009 5:39 pm  

Wire On The Telly wrote:

Yes i seen that, but i bet someone like christiano Ronaldo or Kaka would possibly wipe the floor with most of them, if not all.

What makes you think that?