The League Media

[Braveheart81]

The league kickers would almost certainly take a greater proportion of their kicks from wide out though because they don't take as many penalty goal attempts which quite often are fairly easy kicks.

It's a hard thing to directly compare because rugby union kickers also turn down possible penalty goal attempts based on difficulty depending on how good the kicker is. Foley for instance almost never has penalty goal attempts from close to the sideline because the Tahs generally kick for the corner if they don't think the penalty goal is close to a sure thing.

I think if did a lot of analysis of goal kickers in league and union you'd come to a conclusion that they are very close in terms of skill level. You'd probably find that the best NRL goal kickers are better than the best Australian rugby goal kickers but probably inferior to the best South African goal kickers.

 

[Tomikin]

To the end of 2014, the following players have these goal kicking statistics

Adam Reynolds - 87.2%
Michael Gordon - 82.7%
Michael Witt - 80-6%
James Maloney - 80.1%
Jarrod Crocker - 80.1%
Chris Sandow 79.9%
Joonathan Thurston - 79.2%

Of these Thurston has had many more attempts. My perception, having watched a lot of both codes for a lot of years, is that in Australia league goal kickers are better than union ones. Just because they don't line up kicks from scrum penalties from 50m out doesn't mean they can't kick. League kickers are also far superior at the torpedo punt, which has almost disappeared as a skill in rugby.

0411 859 505www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/nrl/bunnies-boast-a-shining-boot-boy-with-adam-reynolds-blitzing-goal-kicking-stats/story-fni3fbgz-1226910743855

They Are definaitly guys that can kick well in League not saying that they are bad, but they kick from mostly the same spot everytime. oh and the guy Phil Gould was talking about was Jarrod Crocker.. and he shanked it.... Although I did once watch a kickng comp on the footy show between a Union guy and Scott Prince (don't remember the Union guy who was kicking) Scott Prince won..

 

[southsider]

They Are definaitly guys that can kick well in League not saying that they are bad, but they kick from mostly the same spot everytime. oh and the guy Phil Gould was talking about was Jarrod Crocker.. and he shanked it.. Although I did once watch a kickng comp on the footy show between a Union guy and Scott Prince (don't remember the Union guy who was kicking) Scott Prince won..

Saw Daniel halengahu did one back in the day against a leaguie, might've been prince but for some reason I'm thinking it was hazem el masri

 

[Tomikin]

Saw Daniel halengahu did one back in the day against a leaguie, might've been prince but for some reason I'm thinking it was hazem el masri

I think they did like a weekly contest for a while..

 

[p.Tah]

Matty Johns show and it was versus Jamie Soward

 

[Braveheart81]

If that video shows anything it's probably that kicking for goal is fairly similar with either football.

 

[Pfitzy]

Did Gus Gould produce that? What a waste of digital storage.

 

[Braveheart81]

Did Gus Gould produce that? What a waste of digital storage.

If Gould was involved there'd have been more NO NO NO NO NOs and WOW WOW WOWs!

 

[papabear]

From my perspective union balls have always been fatter and rounder and league long and skinny.

IMO union balls are easier to play long then league balls and are easier to put in a decent kick if not perfect.

But really it is much of a muchness with both balls.

 

[southsider]

If that video shows anything it's probably that kicking for goal is fairly similar with either football.

Unfortunately not everyone is a talented kicker who literally gets paid to practice everyday.....kinda makes a difference more than the balls do I'd say

 

[Inside Shoulder]

I reckon the one thing that video shows is that league just can't ignore union

 

[Braveheart81]

I reckon the one thing that video shows is that league just can't ignore union

Do you think they'd have canned the segment it if Halangahu had won?

Or made it best two out of three?

 

[Quick Hands]

Don't think it's a fair comparison when league kickers generally don't kick any further out than 23-24m on the angle.

It's like comparing a centres free throw % in basketball to a player who takes the 3point shots %

Doesn't mean they can't kick though. I've seen plenty of rugby kickers miss those reasonably close kicks. Kicks after tries in league and union are taken from similar positions. If rugby players are routinely missing penalty kicks from further out, maybe they need to practice more, or maybe they shouldn't take the kick in the first place.

 

[southsider]

Doesn't mean they can't kick though. I've seen plenty of rugby kickers miss those reasonably close kicks. Kicks after tries in league and union are taken from similar positions. If rugby players are routinely missing penalty kicks from further out, maybe they need to practice more, or maybe they shouldn't take the kick in the first place.

No it doesn't but then again I wasn't saying that to begin with. Just saying comparing the two isn't really worth doing

 

[Inside Shoulder]

Do you think they'd have canned the segment it if Halangahu had won?

Or made it best two out of three?

the thought occurred to me - but really: they care a lot more about proving how much better their game is than the opposite.
My parting observation in these arguments usually involves pointing out that in the RWC no more than about 25 blokes who are playing grew up in Sydney or Brisbane.

 

[I like to watch]

Do you think they'd have canned the segment it if Halangahu had won?

Or made it best two out of three?

Or three out of five,or first to five,or ........

 

[Pfitzy]

From my perspective union balls have always been fatter and rounder and league long and skinny.

IMO union balls are easier to play long then league balls and are easier to put in a decent kick if not perfect.

League ball has a slightly smaller sweet spot due to being a bit pointier in my experience.

Neither ball comes off the boot as well as a proper Sherrin (AFL) drop punted though.

 

[RugbyFuture]

http://www.theroar.com.au/2015/05/01/mascord-three-codes-rugby/

MASCORD: Are there about to be three codes of rugby?

With rugby league showing more commitment to international competition this weekend than at any time in the modern era, it might be time to assess the state of the game in that arena.
The new NRL administration clearly sees international competition – at club and Test level – as a potential area of growth. It has expanded the World Club Challenge, discussed taking NRL games overseas and established academies in the Pacific.
The NRL is helping finance and organise teams from Fiji, Samoa, Papua New Guinea and Tonga this weekend while South Africa, Niue, Lebanon and Malta will also be playing Tests in Sydney. In the past, League Central has also had to pay the Kiwis’ wages – for all I know, it’s doing the same on Friday night.
These are small steps after 120 years of only patchy interest from rugby league authorities everywhere in expanding a sport which was, conversely, designed specifically to be more attractive than its much more widely played parent code, so the players could be paid.
But most things happening in international rugby league remain outside the NRL’s sphere of information or influence and there is one very worrying trend I would like to identify in this column.
Events in the United Arab Emirates, Italy and South Africa have led me to fear we might soon be left with three – or at least two and a half – codes of rugby in the latest piece of political manoeuvring open to the seemingly endless ranks of disgruntled league officials everywhere.
Let’s start with the most recent imbroglio.
The fledgling UAE rugby league recently announced it would like to host the 2021 World Cup. Not going to happen – but a great publicity stunt that let people know the game is now being played in that country.
The local rugby union authorities were not amused.
They issued a statement saying they were the only body permitted to use the word “rugby”, that these upstarts were abusing their intellectual property and risked being sued.
The league actually changed the names of some teams as it considered its position, but the domestic league is continuing despite the threats.
In way more than half of the countries where rugby union is played, little or nothing is known about rugby league. So when rugby league shows up, the same indignation and victimisation occurs that happened in Australia, New Zealand and England generations ago.
(We can’t compare the current events to what happened in France because the Nazis aren’t around anymore to help rugby union out).
Two years ago, the Rugby League European Federation actually succeeded in getting the International Rugby Board to tell South Africa and Morocco that the 13-man game was a sovereign sport controlled by a separate body and should be left alone.
The IRB told those Federations to stop telling their respective governments rugby league was an unauthorised version of rugby union which was not worthy of any funding.
You’re following this so far, right? So all that needs to happen in the UAE is that the body now known as World Rugby to send a similar letter to its local Federation.
But the problem is this: in Italy, a breakaway rugby league body has just affiliated with the rugby union!
And last I heard, the South Africa Rugby League has been worn down so much by interference from rugby union representatives in the Olympic movement there that they were considering doing likewise.
So at the same time as battling UAE leaguies are trying to prove that the local rahrahs are backwards and barking up the wrong tree, their position is being undermined by their brethren abroad.
How do we get three codes out of this?
Here’s how: This is just an example, right? I have no evidence at all that this is going to happen. But, let’s say the RLIF recognises the Thailand Rugby League and outlaws the rival Thailand Stars, who played Japan on Wednesday.
What is to stop the Thailand Stars, with their sponsors, players and officials, going to the Thai rugby union and saying “we would like to be your 13-a-side and 9-a-side body?”
It gives rugby union a change to legitimately undermine a rival by claiming exactly what the sport has just claimed in the UAE – that rugby is one game, not two.
That is exactly what has now happened in Italy. There are three codes of rugby there, effectively.
Why is that a problem? Well, what does a government official do when he receives an application for funding from two bodies in charge of the same sport, each claiming to be correctly affiliated?
Does he give money to the one aligned with the Rugby League International Federation, of which he knows nothing? Or does he give it to the one aligned with the local rugby union, with which he has dealt before? They run “rugby” here, right? And 13-a-side rugby is still rugby, right?
This is the new, grassroots, Super League War ladies and gentlemen – rugby league bodies so marginalised and angry that they are willing to sleep with the enemy.
And it’s a huge challenge for the incoming RLIF CEO, David Collier. If a renegade league choses to side with its local union, it undermines his organisation enormously by playing on rugby league’s global weaknesses.
A breakaway league can offer players all the perks of being part of a bigger sport – including possible Olympic representation – and save them all the hassles and obstacles of being part of a pioneering movement.
Long term, what if rugby union started running 13-a-side competitions under league rules? Are our rules copyright? Could union reabsorb league, starting in countries where league is unknown and killing off its seeds before working backwards towards the citadels of Parramatta, Headingley and Onehunga in a Hundred Years War?
Three rugby codes, competing for players, sponsors, publicity and government recognition.
It’s a nightmare.

Self victimisation is a real key ingredient to all this isn't it.

http://www.smh.com.au/rugby-league/...tta-eels-board-elections-20150503-1myxxk.html

Good news for league
League fans who have been calling for the sport to return to one set of rules – not the three of four we have at the moment – should prepare themselves for some good news. The media release out of the Rugby League International Federation meeting in Brisbane over the weekend didn't say much – but buried somewhere down near the bottom was this: "The RLIF Laws Committee will be tasked with maintaining a single set of laws for the game with innovation being encouraged to further enhance the sport through regulations proposed in national competitions." The RLIF now has a new battleground – the United Arab Emirates Rugby Union is trying to stop the local league from using the word "rugby" in its name, the sort of thing that we've been dealing with for roughly 120 years.
Burgess soundbites
Wigan's Joe Burgess doesn't join Sydney Roosters until next year but when it comes to meaningless soundbites, he's got every NRL player covered. On Friday night, his side beat Widnes 60-0 at DW Stadium. His comment at full time? "It could have gone either way." Elsewhere, Ben Barba is apparently not the only mungo being sought by the Australian Rugby Union for the Olympic sevens – Fox Sports reported from the Pacific Tests than an ARU delegation was at Robina on a recruitment mission, no doubt trying to identify islanders who are also Australian eligible. Why go through the charade of making them play 15s first? Just pick the Australian Olympic sides from both codes and be done with it.

 

[zer0]

I entered that Roar threat expecting a flame war reminiscent of 1960's Vietnam.

It did not disappoint.

 

[Aussie D]

and here I was thinking that the Roar was supposed to be a serious sports website. I guess that is why I stopped going there long ago.