King adds weight to league debate

Queensland rugby league great Wally Lewis was happy to discuss a range of topical issues during his visit to Ipswich.

Rob Williams

THE king of rugby league in Queensland has backed a move to introduce weight divisions to junior rugby league.

During his visit to Ipswich on Friday, Wally Lewis said placing juniors of similar age but drastically different physical size on the same park was almost a killing point for the game.

“A lot of mothers have quite openly objected to kids that are 35 or 40kg going out there against kids that are 75 and 80kg, and I agree, it’s just ludicrous,” Lewis said.

“When I was going to primary school it was based on weight – I remember playing in the four stones, four stone-sevens, the five stones and six stones – I’m not sure how that translates into kilograms but it was pretty much the same idea.”

The Ipswich Junior Rugby League is considering a number of weight-for-age proposals.

Admitting he wasn’t the greatest fan of the modern game, Lewis said he liked the idea of the new downtown kicker rule, which he said could create more attacking opportunities for fullbacks.

“You can see why it has been brought in, but there are going to be pros and cons for the introduction of that rule,” he said.

“I don’t think it will be successful straight away. I think the biggest problem with all of these things is the initial introduction – when it first comes in people just find it a pain in the a..e.

“Effectively it may be the best thing for the game but we probably won’t know that for another year or two.”

Lewis had mixed feelings on modern player pay packets, club loyalty and the modern game.

He said he did not blame players for the amount of money they were paid, because they were essentially employees of their clubs under the current culture.

“They do get paid a fair amount of money, you can’t deny that. But with the time they put in now they are seen as employees of the club, not just contracted because of their football ability, and the club can tell them what to do and when they want them to do it and they get four or five weeks holiday a year,” he said.

“The amount of money they are getting is nowhere near what they were getting when Super League was here, it’s probably half that. They do get a lot more than players were 20 years ago but it kind of goes with the flow. You’ve also got to consider the amount of public pressure the players are under, the media scrutiny that they face – I probably think it is a deserved amount.”

Lewis was critical of the modern game’s over-emphasis on attack. He said the change had resulted in the loss of the fearsome defenders in the game – people like David Gillespie and Trevor Gillmeister.

“People these days would not be able to name the best three defenders in the league now because they don’t exist anymore,” Lewis said.

“Attacking players used to find a detour around Gillmeister, they were that scared of him.”

Lewis said the loss of Queensland State of Origin forward Dallas Johnson, a noted defender, to the French competition was a major blow to the NRL.

Lewis tipped the Melbourne Storm to take out this year’s NRL competition.