Queensland Reds 2026

[Dctarget]

It's been like this for the two decades I've followed the sport. Was it easier to understand in the '90s?

 

[Ignoto]

Philosophically speaking, Rugby is from another era where new viewers didn’t have tik tok and therefore had the time and appetite to learn something new.

We take the piss out of how hard Union is to understand, but NRL teams have a guy with a radio on the field telling players how to attack and defend.

 

[Sword of Justice]

It's been like this for the two decades I've followed the sport. Was it easier to understand in the '90s?

To be honest, yes. The only thing that mattered at lienout was throwing straight because they didn’t lift until professionalism, scrums were just pushing, breakdowns were self policed to a much greater degree. It was always more complex than league though.

The biggest arms race in Rugby is exploiting the laws.

 

[Sword of Justice]

We take the piss out of how hard Union is to understand, but NRL teams have a guy with a radio on the field telling players how to attack and defend.

They also have a special tee for restart kicks. Bizarre.

 

[Strewthcobber]

Philosophically speaking, Rugby is from another era where new viewers didn’t have tik tok and therefore had the time and appetite to learn something new. Asking for 10 minutes to explain something marks you as a cancer in our society needing absolutely expunging. Yes I’m aware of how old this makes me sound.

How to combat this? Cultural relevance is the only way. Take the NFL as an example. I would argue it’s even more complex than Rugby and teams constantly find ways to not play the game to advantage. Let’s be honest, it’s a shit sport (sorry BH and Ghost) but people care. Half the viewers wouldn’t know what the fuck is going on but watch because they want to know what happened in the ‘big game’.

The only path to relevance is winning internationally significant matches. Everything else is a gimmick. We’ve got a bit of money now and a stage in the RWC on home soil. Time to put everything on red.

NFL is far more black and white than our sport. If someone is holding, they throw the flag and call a holding penalty. And their commentators are 1 billion times better at explaining what's going on

We expect refs to "manage" the game, and let the game flow, which in practice means ignoring most penalties. Us fans tend to get most upset when they ignore the incorrect penalties

 

[Strewthcobber]

It's been like this for the two decades I've followed the sport. Was it easier to understand in the '90s?

You couldn't tell if a ref made a mistake on a 20" CRT in SD

 

[Tomikin]

You couldn't tell if a ref made a mistake on a 20" CRT in SD

Look my biggest thing is that we have a TMO so we dont make those mistakes. I'd perfer to go back to it without TMO other then for tries, and let it lie how the ref sees it.

I think some of the best games Ive watched are ones without the tmo butting in.

 

[Strewthcobber]

Look my biggest thing is that we have a TMO so we dont make those mistakes. I'd perfer to go back to it without TMO other then for tries, and let it lie how the ref sees it.

I think some of the best games Ive watched are ones without the tmo butting in.

Like I said

We expect refs to "manage" the game, and let the game flow, which in practice means ignoring most penalties