I get the goal, but I think penalising deep kicks fundamentally goes against the point of the kickoff. The ability of the kicking team to give themselves as much room as possible to defend. And I’m not sure it’ll even accomplish the stated goal. What team is going to take a 6 tackle set caught at 25 m rather than a 7 tackle set caught in goal or at least behind the 10 m line? So they’ll give away the 7 tackle set and still have hits just as hard as before, negating the supposed safety benefit.
If they want to improve safety, maybe they could consider something like gridiron’s “fair catch” rule, but applied only on kickoffs. You get a 7 tackle set, but the other team gets to set up 10 metres from the spot before you play the ball. But if I’m being honest I don’t really like that idea either because it undermines the free-flowing nature of rugby league.
I get the goal, but I think penalising deep kicks fundamentally goes against the point of the kickoff. The ability of the kicking team to give themselves as much room as possible to defend. And I’m not sure it’ll even accomplish the stated goal. What team is going to take a 6 tackle set caught at 25 m rather than a 7 tackle set caught in goal or at least behind the 10 m line? So they’ll give away the 7 tackle set and still have hits just as hard as before, negating the supposed safety benefit.
If they want to improve safety, maybe they could consider something like gridiron’s “fair catch” rule, but applied only on kickoffs. You get a 7 tackle set, but the other team gets to set up 10 metres from the spot before you play the ball. But if I’m being honest I don’t really like that idea either because it undermines the free-flowing nature of rugby league.