BY DAN

Does Peter V’Landys like rugby league?

He and Andrew Abdo are currently pursuing rule changes. Again. No, wait. Again, again. Our take on them can be found here, but in short, they are silly and counterproductive. Most notably they include an extension of the set-restart rule to cover 80 per cent of the field. As we know from the 2020 and 2021 seasons, this will create bigger margins, less interesting football, and fatigue‑based safety risks.

Their attempt to ameliorate this comes via a new kick‑off rule – not so much swallowing a spider to catch a fly, but swallowing a drunk fly to catch a slightly drunker one, then also swallowing a fifth of vodka (dare me to drive?). The result will essentially be winner’s kick, more short kick‑offs, and the greater weaponisation of the six‑again rule. Fun mix.

All evidence from 2020 and 2021 shows the set restart changes will be a disaster. The idea that a messy, untested kick‑off rule will fix it is can best be described as “hope.” There’s guesswork, theorising, and zero understanding of the unintended consequences. Yet the administration remains committed to pushing these changes.

This comes hot on the heels of what most would consider the most successful season in NRL history. The ratings, in all measures, were the biggest for any professional sport league in Australia. The competition was tight, unpredictable, and exhilarating – from the Miracle in Mudgee to the calamity in Canberra, and One Good Play. And that’s just games involving the Raiders.

This game that is at the top of the world apparently needs seismic change. You might call it not resting on laurels. I call it middle managers trying to show they’re important. So why are they pursuing these changes? And why now?

V’Landys, as implied by Code Sports is pursuing these changes as a selling point for the next broadcasting rights deal. Rugby league as entertainment, instead of a sport people literally bleed for. He thinks the game is popular because of the introduction of the set restart rule (as opposed to its quality, societal change since Covid, and the success of the Broncos, the league’s biggest market by a mile), ignoring what went before and what has come since. By the same logic I could argue the game’s growth comes from winding back the set restart since 2021. Idiocy cuts both ways, Pete.

No one that cares for the game asked for this. Fan reaction, anecdotally at least has been to ask ‘why are you messing with the game’? All 17 clubs have roundly rejected the changes, asking for them to be trialed properly (what a novel idea, proper administration?) to give them an idea how to adjust their rosters to this dramatic change. Normally reserved leaders like Don Furner have publicly questioned them. There’s been nothing from the players, or their representatives. My guess is they are probably trying to work out if they can drop five kilograms between now and March to keep up with the league’s desire to turn the game into touch footy (again).

It seems Vlando is choosing gimmicks and sugar hits. He doesn’t need to. The broadcasters need rugby league. What is Foxtel without league? Channel 9 has nothing to offer advertisers but MAFS and live sport. Here he has the goose that lays the golden egg and V’Landys is trying to sell it as a good option for a Sunday roast.

In my view it shows a lack of love for the game, a willingness to prioritise the opinion of anyone but the players, the fans, or the rugby league community. It comes across as obsequious to the broadcasters, antithetical to everything that rugby league was created to achieve. It feels both cowardly and arrogant to an extent that Brendon McCullum is probably upset at someone stealing his modus operandi.

No one who loves rugby league looks at the most thrilling season in a decade and thinks, “You know what this needs? A rules‑engineered aneurysm.” No one who loves rugby league sees 17 clubs screaming stop and decides to floor the accelerator. No one who loves rugby league keeps feeding the game into a woodchipper just to see what shape comes out.

A person who truly loved the sport would be able to make a deal without resorting to cheap tricks. If they truly believed in the merits of the rule-amendments they would prove their case, test the rules in lower grades in order to build the case for change. But like he did during Covid it seems Vlando is focused on a broadcasting deal rather than the long-term health of the game.

People who love rugby league nurture it. Protect it. Stand up for it. Can tell you a million reasons it’s great and convince you to love the game through their passion and their advocacy.

People who don’t love rugby league, in my view, experiment on it, and they deserve our contempt for their hubris.

Peter V’Landys is just showing who he is.

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