Once among the closest sporting competitions in the world, the NRL is now dominated by an elite few clubs.
”. During the 2010s, nine different clubs lifted the premiership trophy. At the end of the 2018 regular season, just one win was all that separated the minor premiers from the team in eighth place.. The Roosters, then Melbourne and especially Penrith, have dominated the league in recent times. This year’s grand final match-up between the Panthers and Storm had seemed inevitable for months.
The nature of the six-again rule makes its nature hard to quantify – the game doesn’t stop when a set restart is awarded, so commentators and fans don’t get much of a chance to go back and assess whether a referee’s decision to reset the tackle count was harsh or fair. Better-drilled defensive teams are less likely to give away set restarts. Fitter teams, and better defensive teams, are more likely to cope if forced to defend for multiple sets in succession. Those teams may also choose to slow down the ruck a little longer, backing their ability to hold out their opponents even if they are punished with a repeat set.
The NRL website tracks the number of “close games” per season – matches decided by six points or fewer. There have been 52.6 close games per year since the introduction of the six-again rule, after the previous six seasons produced 65.8 close games per year. That’s 13 fewer tight games every year.
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