NRL great PAUL GALLEN will appear on Nine's 100% FOOTY on Monday night, debating rugby league's hottest topics alongside Phil Gould and James Bracey. Tune in from 10.10pm AEDT, following all the action of round one!
There's just one new rule I'm not convinced about after round one of the NRL – and it's not the extra six-again.
While I thought using a set restart for 10-metre infringements worked pretty well, I'm not sure about replacing scrums with play-the-balls after kicks into touch.
It's a huge benefit to the defending side, not having a scrum. It's a huge disadvantage to the attacking team, to instead take a play-the-ball in the centre of the field against a completely set defensive line.
The defensive side can easily get several players into the first tackle to dominate the start of the set, as opposed to the attacking team having the chance to find a one-on-one against the reduced defensive line.
The NRL had made exciting strides with a few tweaks to the scrum rules; after allowing the attacking team to choose where it was packed last season, the rate of scrum tries doubled.
It's a hell of an increase and there was the additional change this season where the scrum has to stay packed until the referee calls 'break', allowing even more space for the attacking team.
Placing the scrum in the centre of the field and taking 12 players almost completely out of play, leaving just six defenders in the line plus the halfback, gives a huge opportunity to the attacking team and we're seeing the results on the scoreboard. The Eels and Sharks both scored nice tries from scrums on the weekend.
Yet at the other end of the field, we've gone in the opposite direction. It makes for a much tougher start to an attacking set, running into a set defensive line, rather than having the chance to attack half as many defenders.
The other major rule tweak, six-again for offside, didn't have the dramatic effect that some people were worried about.
We spoke to Graham Annesley on The Sunday Footy Show and he revealed that the average time with the ball in play was actually down 20 seconds on last year.
I think that was because of the extra errors on the weekend, being the first round. In some games, teams were only completing at about 65 per cent.
As we get into the competition, that will improve and the game will get faster, no doubt. We'll get more ball in play but I don't think it will be over the top. As long as there's errors in the game, there's always going to be stoppages; and more fatigued players may mean more errors.
I thought the quality of the play was pretty good in round one. It will only improve.
As relentless as games may be under the new rules, there's not much for the players to complain about this year, having had a proper pre-season to prepare.
I thought that introducing the six-again midway through last season was tough, after players had the 10-week COVID break and only a three-week mini pre-season. It was obviously hard on certain teams, like Manly, who were unable to get used to it quickly enough and saw their season slip away.
This year, everyone's had a whole pre-season to get used to it. No excuses.
MANLY ORDINARY AS TOP SIDES SHINE
The usual suspects impressed me in round one. Melbourne and the Roosters looked great.
I thought Penrith played a very patient game. They had a lot of ball that they could have converted into points but didn't, only leading 8-0 at the 52nd minute mark, yet blew them away at the end of the game.
Patience isn't a trait I would have naturally associated with Penrith, simply because they're such a young, brash team. I thought that not scoring might have hurt them, that the Cowboys could come back.
But the Panthers showed great maturity in that game. I remember Tim Sheens used to say, 'Win the game early, score the points late', and that's what they did. They took the gas out of the Cowboys and scored all their points late, while keeping North Queensland to nil. It was an impressive win.
South Sydney have got a lot of improvement in them after dishing up a terrible completion rate in their loss to Melbourne; 63 per cent completion with only 38 per cent of possession.
If they can get anywhere near 50 per cent of the ball and improve that completion rate, they're going to be a whole lot better.
The Roosters looked great in smashing the Sea Eagles but I reckon there's some issues at Manly.
They look too big to me. Again, they're a side who really didn't cope with the rule changes last year, the faster play through the middle of the field.
I think it's going to be a long year for Manly fans.
It's been a broken record, the narrative of how much they struggle without Tom Trbojevic but want to prove they're not a one-man team; unfortunately, the results are showing that.
Yet I don't think even Turbo would have made much of a difference on the weekend. They were blown off the park by a far better team and didn't show much fight at all.
I thought they were pretty ordinary, to be honest.
I thought the same of the Dragons in the first half but they came right back into the game against Cronulla and were unlucky to have that Cody Ramsey try disallowed. They showed some fight to get back into the contest and credit to them, but the Sharkies had too much class and got the job done.
I've tipped the top-eight sides to remain the same this season, which means no Manly or St George Illawarra. The most likely side to break through may be the Warriors, who I thought defended really well in their win over the Titans.
It's going to be another difficult season for them, playing away from home. Yet later in the season, if they get the opportunity to go back to New Zealand, perhaps that actually upsets their routines and momentum.
It's hard to know what to make of the Warriors. We again have to take our hat off to them, basing themselves in Australia for the good of the competition, but there's a lot of unknowns.
They seem to have had a strong pre-season and Nathan Brown has done a good job with them, early doors. They're a chance to press for a finals spot.
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