We were ignored by NRL — Green

Veteran Warriors playmaker Blake Green has revealed how the NRL ignored the advice of the game’s senior coaches, players and referees in making major rule changes so close to the competition’s restart.

Green said it was difficult to predict how the game might look under the changes but he appeared to hold concerns, particularly over the sixagain rule which replaces ruck infringement penalties.

The NRL has also scrapped the two-referee system used since 2009, returning to the days of one main man in the middle.

The 33-year-old Green, who is at his eighth club, was part of a player advisory group consulted by the NRL.

“I asked for no changes and they made two which shows how much I know,” he said from the Warriors quarantine camp in Tamworth.

“Wade Graham and Daly CherryEvans were our spokespeople. They formed into a group with Cooper Cronk as an ex-player, a couple of coaches in Trent Robinson and Michael Maguire, a few refs.

“Their preferred option was to trial them in lower grades instead.”

ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys says the changes will encourage free-flowing football but Green said it might simply encourage more one-up running.

“If it brings back some more fatigue and we see more linebreaks, great,” he said. “It is important to remember that as much as people want to be entertained and see tries, defence is a big part of the game. Whoever handles it defensively will go a long way to winning the competition.

“We only got confirmation of the rule change this morning and had a first crack at it at training. It is a tough one to handle. The game keeps flowing and you end up making 16 or 17 tackles in a row. It’s a tough ask.

“As we saw in the first two games of the season, the advantage is around the ruck and teams are just kicking the door down the middle. There weren’t that many tries scored from expansive footy.

“It could lead to a few more carries in the middle until the door falls over and you roll through that.”

And he cited matches where he would prefer a penalty from an opponent’s ruck error.

“Coming out of your end, 20 metres from the tryline, you’ve done a good job defensively, I’d prefer to kick the ball 30 metres downfield and have an attacking mindset from a setpiece. If it is 12-all and we are attacking their line and they are laying all over us, I’d prefer to have the two points [from a penalty].”