I'd certainly like to see it applied on "tackles" in mid air.

These days, you even put a hand on a guy jumping for the ball and it somehow gets deemed a "tackle".

FFS, is it that hard to distinguish between an attempt at tackle someone and go for the ball?

Never agreed with this sentiment.

Games are won by a combination of things. Winning forward battle helps but if SOO has taught us anything over the last 40 years is that it's not the only component.

Marki, while it is true that Qld forwards dominated NSW thus putting pressure on the Blues backs, the latitude that the referee gave qld in general play made them look much better than they really were. The "flat" passes that were let go is an obvious testament that the officials don't know the rules. The ball must leave the players hand in a backwards motion and while we all know that physics tells us that when a player is moving forward then the ball will travel retrospect to that player, so you would expect the catcher to receive the ball a half a metre or so in front of the position it was passed not 2 -3 metres. A flat pass is a forward pass every day of the week yet hundreds of them are ignored every weekend.

There is certainly more to it then winning the forward battle. But it helps in the majority of games. When Qld won with terrible sides it was the forwards who stepped up. 

I can’t remember a ref or touch judge that could do well enough to get it right more then half the time. I honestly don’t blame them anymore because they have always been terrible. 

Micko, an athlete travelling at 20 km/h will cover 1.85 metres in one second, so if the reciever gets the ball 2 or more metres in front of from where it was passed it is obviously forward. Just have to apply simple maths rather than spent opulent amounts for GPS tracker technology.

Actually that figure of 1.85 m/s is at 24 km/h.

When a team is winning the forwards battle a player in the opposition team needs to do something exceptional to turn momentum.

In the NSW side Teddy, Latrell and Turbo are capable of that, but one is far easier to handle than 3.

IMO the game showed the limiations of Cook, he needs fast play the balls to be effective.
His passing isn't much better than JMK s nd considering our slower play the balls, JMK almost matches him in running. What has changed is a slower ruck the NSW team had a Dog's speed ruck.

Considering that the QLD side didn't need to pick Marhoney just shows how well they are suited to a slower speed game. 

Their depth in the spine is fairly good, even with retirement of Thurson, Slater and Smith.

Outside of the Panthers halves I don't think NSW has a better option. Hooker is pretty much Cook and Api.

I do wonder why Jake T wasn't picked, or even Finucane.

Hynes might be worth a try if we want an alternative to Api.

NSW needs to at least match QLD in the forwards to win, QLD could be shaded in the forwards batlle and one of their spine players might shift momentum.

Question:
If a drop out doesn't go the 10m, can the receiving team pick up the ball?

Surely they can't be penalised when receiving the ball?

Backwards out of the hands is not in the rulebook for a good reason. It is only relevant if the passers body is oriented square to the sideline. Try it on a line of tiles or something, if the player's body is at 45 degrees everything changes.

Not simple, too many variables, including speed of the pass,  distance between etc.

No

Could be used by the bunker. Very good idea. 

Well I thought their forwards were fine.
It's their hooker and halves who couldn't control the game and didn't know when to straighten the attack.

NSW was 1 slightly forward pass and 1 obstruction call away from being on level terms. 

And it had nothing to do with forward domination. It's just 2 chances that on another day could have been 2 trys and the win. 

Yep.
The rule should be black and white from the point where it leaves the hands, to the point where it is caught.

Force players to pass backwards mo matter how fast or slow they are going.

If its a long pass that is heading backwards initially but then floats forward by wind, then its ok.

Something is not right here...
24km/hr should be 6.6m/s....

Are you saying that you'd be happy to see a winger run down the sideline at 24km/hr, draw the fullback and fire a pass 6.6m forward to his inside man where the pass takes 1second to execute?

Technically, its a line ball pass, but id call that forward.

IMO it should just be the reference from ball leaving the hands to ball being caught.

You've  nailed it

But it doesn't matter what you or I think, the referees will interpret the rules and officiate the game the way the NRLol want it officiated. At the end of the day we are just the " mug punters" that spend our hard earned to fill their coffers.

What happens? Supposedly with the same rulebook you get different games refereed differently.
This is what happened on Wednesday. The SOO was refereed with a laissez-faire approach to the rules, which it always is. I'm sure Queensland was coached to take advantage of this.  

Exactly, and Fittler has to be smart enough to do his homework also.

My biggest gripe is that the rules are not written to eliminate the potential for intetpretation....... and they should be!

Clear no try for Paulo..  Titans lose all momentum and numbers advantage downfield after the obvious error cos the ref wants to check…
I hope the NRLol can spend a couple of off seasons focusing on getting their representatives shit up to scratch instead of changing rules…

Terrible disadvantage to the Titans. If the officials can't make a decision get them out of there. If they're under instructions get their leaders out of there.

This Broncos vs Raiders game is a beauty.
Players offloading, players in support and alert.
Great stuff.

Hope our guys are watching and take a leaf of this book

Watching the game I was thinking how can Marki coach 2 sides at once!!!…

You never have played before, have you? 

The club will eventually be a force again. Just wait and be patient. Until then vent on here. But please don’t delude yourself into thinking you know how to get the club back to where you want it to be. 

If you thought Pritchard was good for us. Just wait till you see Kikau