Injury spike
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One way to counter the size of the players, which has definitely increased, is to speed up the game.
Go back to a smaller halftime break, speed up the scrum engagements, free kick time wasting, reduce the number of subs.
Make fitness more of a virtue than size.
Be hard to keep muscle on in that sort of game and less size will reduce the collision impact and may reduce some of the injuries.
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I heard something a little while ago that seemed to make sense to me. It was to do with the increasing size of players. For sure guys have got naturally bigger, taller over the last 20-30 years but it is the packing on of so much extra muscle weight. The upshot is that while you can train most things to increase your size, your joints cannot be trained. This results in so much more stress put on joints which over time causes heaps of problems.
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What would be interesting is a comparison with League, Soccer and AFL. Also a year on year injury rate and type of injury. Its also interesting some players seem prone to injury whilst others seem to play game after game. Crockett springs to mind, maybe all the bench warming contributed to his longevity, not sure.
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I remember the first professional rugby of any type I saw was when the NRL began being televised in NZ in 1989.
Back then their entire teams could almost make it through the entire season. 13 players plus 4 subs (no interchange). You got to watch the same guys play week-in week out and learnt the teams & players quite quickly.
Although it may have been that some of them were making it to the end of the season on cortisone. I remember the Raiders seemed to need to manage Ricky Stuart and Bradley Clyde to get them through.
I think it is worth a study, I think profession ruggby (both codes) should be aiming for a sport where at a pro level a small squad can make it through a season.
Big changes I can think of are the interchange, and the 5m rule changing to 10m.
But also the physiques/strength/conditioning has changed. I may just have rose-tinted glasses ( i lost interest in league when they went to interchange and 10m rule).
At a guess, I'd estimate NSWRL was about 10 years (or just less) from transtioning from semi-pro top fully pro in 1989? That sweet, sweet pokie monies.
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One thing those reports fail to address is whether the concussion is incurred by the tackled player or the tackler. A lot of the current concern is traced back to George North getting concussed twice in a game in 2015: once from being kicked in the head while diving on the ball and then as the tackler (head or shoulder clash?). My casual observation is that a significant proportion of head-injuries are incurred by the tackler either through poor technique or bad luck, but also because the player being tackled is (with some notable exceptions) not censured for leading with a hip, elbow, knee or shoulder. All the protection goes to the player with ball and none to the tackler. Combine this with increasing pressure to tackle aggressively and try to force the opposition backwards leading to greater impact between players. Talk of lowering the tackle-zone even further might only make things worse.
Doesn't explain other injuries - knees, soft-tissue etc - escalating though.
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@nepia said in Injury spike:
@bones said in Injury spike:
@rapido what's the thinking behind changing the 5m to 10m?
Open up the game, more tries - worked on Wednesday for the Storm.
Errmmmm...aren't we talking about reducing injuries?
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@bones said in Injury spike:
@nepia said in Injury spike:
@bones said in Injury spike:
@rapido what's the thinking behind changing the 5m to 10m?
Open up the game, more tries - worked on Wednesday for the Storm.
Errmmmm...aren't we talking about reducing injuries?
Hmmm, I just thought you were asking why the NRL changed the 5m to 10m.
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@nepia said in Injury spike:
@bones said in Injury spike:
@nepia said in Injury spike:
@bones said in Injury spike:
@rapido what's the thinking behind changing the 5m to 10m?
Open up the game, more tries - worked on Wednesday for the Storm.
Errmmmm...aren't we talking about reducing injuries?
Hmmm, I just thought you were asking why the NRL changed the 5m to 10m.
And you thought I was too thick to understand that part. I guess I earned that.
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@bones said in Injury spike:
@nepia said in Injury spike:
@bones said in Injury spike:
@nepia said in Injury spike:
@bones said in Injury spike:
@rapido what's the thinking behind changing the 5m to 10m?
Open up the game, more tries - worked on Wednesday for the Storm.
Errmmmm...aren't we talking about reducing injuries?
Hmmm, I just thought you were asking why the NRL changed the 5m to 10m.
And you thought I was too thick to understand that part. I guess I earned that.
Hahahaha, maybe I'm the thick one for taking you at face value ....
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@rapido said in Injury spike:
@bones said in Injury spike:
@rapido what's the thinking behind changing the 5m to 10m?
The game was very defense oriented/dominated, so to increase the amount of space.
So to increase the amount of space and allow higher speed collisions?
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@jezza said in Injury spike:
One thing those reports fail to address is whether the concussion is incurred by the tackled player or the tackler. A lot of the current concern is traced back to George North getting concussed twice in a game in 2015: once from being kicked in the head while diving on the ball and then as the tackler (head or shoulder clash?). My casual observation is that a significant proportion of head-injuries are incurred by the tackler either through poor technique or bad luck, but also because the player being tackled is (with some notable exceptions) not censured for leading with a hip, elbow, knee or shoulder. All the protection goes to the player with ball and none to the tackler. Combine this with increasing pressure to tackle aggressively and try to force the opposition backwards leading to greater impact between players. Talk of lowering the tackle-zone even further might only make things worse.
Doesn't explain other injuries - knees, soft-tissue etc - escalating though.A quick read suggests tackling injuries affect both tackler and tackled about the same.
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@bones said in Injury spike:
@rapido said in Injury spike:
@bones said in Injury spike:
@rapido what's the thinking behind changing the 5m to 10m?
The game was very defense oriented/dominated, so to increase the amount of space.
So to increase the amount of space and allow higher speed collisions?
Yeah. I was digressing on how the ARL used to see players make it through a season relatively unscathed and then musing on rule changes that may have upset that equilibrium.
Unless injuries were hidden by cortisone then I think a game of that speed and that size-a-player is the only full season long pro rugby comp I've seen work from an injury pov.
But, Of course concussions back then in ARL were not even given the RU compulsory 3 weeks off.
