I agree with commentary about the recent stark contrast between the off-field performances of AFL and the NRL, with the AFL looking smart and professional and the NRL, well, less so.
But I also think the NRL has significant on-field problems.
This NRL season was blighted by some extraordinary refereeing blunders - this was paralleled recently in the NFL in the US where the referees went on-strike. It demonstrated that high quality refereeing is an essential part of the product. The NRL need to address this problem. While fixing this problem, the NRL needs to do a lot more to stop players (including captains) continually arguing with referees on the field (it is a very bad look).
More than that I think that rugby league has become boring.
There are many very talented and highly skilled athletes in the NRL ranks, I just don't think the rules are keeping up-to-date with the professionalism of the game.
Defence dominates the game. Many tries are scored are scored off the back of penalties, highlighting the refereeing issue. The players are much fitter, and with the interchange rule, they are able to 'strangle' an attack. Some referees keep a short ten metres and many are inconsistent, with a tendency to police the rule early in a game but not so much later on.
In addition, everytime the NRL makes some rule change to speed up the game, the clever coaches (Bellamy, Hasler, Bennett et al) that influence the game so much work out ways to slow it down again.
And many of the rule changes lead to confusion and controversy eg obstruction, ball stripping, and the 'unintentional' forcing of the ball all and many more have become sources of irritation that detract from the game. Some players (eg Cameron Smith) have become masters at slowing the play the ball to the absolute limit of what's acceptable to any particular referee.
The upshot is that there seem to be fewer and fewer line breaks in the game and fewer free flowing attacking movements.
I say this as a life long rugby league fan: the AFL grand final was one of the best sporting spectacles you're ever likely to see and the NRL GF was a boring affair that never really got off the ground. You might say well the AFL game was closer, true but it was also a lot more free-flowing and the players got a lot more opportunities to use their skills.
There is also a problem with the club structure of the game. The AFL seems better at both supporting new teams and far tougher on ground size etc (some NRL grounds have a capacity of twenty thousand or less).
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