Castleford Tigers chief advocates '˜Golden Try' drama

A raft of different proposals are being discussed by the sport’s management in a bid to make the competition more attractive with the introduction of a ‘Shot Clock’ and reduction in substitutions also under consideration.

The prospect of abolishing draws has been mooted with teams level after 80 minutes instead playing Golden Point extra-time as has been the case in the NRL since 2003.

That system is already used in the Challenge Cup and Super League’s semi-finals and Grand Final with Castleford’s own Luke Gale slotting a dramatic drop-goal against St Helens last year to reach Old Trafford.

Nothing has been confirmed either way yet but Powell told The Yorkshire Post: “If you have Golden Point you know it’s going to be bang, bang, bang, bang (drives)...

“You have seven tackles now and you know you’re going to be within shooting distance and then it’s just a drop-goal shootout.

“But a Golden Try might create a little bit more. It is an interesting one.

“As I understand it, I think (Leeds Rhinos chief executive) Gary Hetherington brought it up and it would be a really good idea.

“If you were going to do it (end draws) you’d see positive play.

“That would be an interesting move forward but whether they do or not I’m not sure.”

Powell agrees that games need speeding up; although they are supposed to be 80 minutes long, some matches this season have finished more than two hours after kick-off.

That can be down to copious amounts of replays when it comes to video referee decisions, time-wasting at drop-outs or other breaks in play, along with too many penalties being awarded.

In Australia, NRL sides have just 30 seconds to take a goalline drop-out, conversion or scrum and, if they fail to do so, are penalised.

Super League are contemplating doing the same and Powell admitted: “I think we should.

“We had Huddersfield under pressure last week and they were taking a long time to take drop-outs.

“I think that (Shot Clock) will be great for the sport; it will speed it up a fair bit.

“There are some decisions to be made in terms of refereeing. There’s quite a lot of players within certain teams who milk penalties and I think that has to be stopped.

“I just don’t agree with it at all. It’s like diving in football for me.

“If we cut those out, I think that would keep the ball in play a fair bit more as well.”

The 53-year-old, who hopes to lead Castleford to successive Grand Finals in the coming weeks, feels officials need to be more aware of repeat offenders.

“They should know who it is,” said the former England assistant coach.

“They should know who’s going to do the double flop to the floor.

“There’s a lot of arm-trapping with certain teams and actual rotating peoples’ joints when you’ve got the ball which I think is really dangerous, too, so it’s those that need to be recognised.

“They both really need to be taken out of the sport.”

The ‘free-play’ is expected to be ditched by the RFL in 2019 and Powell has no arguments with that although he does feel reducing the number of substitutions from 10 to eight might have implications for some clubs.

“Some teams might find that hard to manage,” he said.

“You’d want to give a potential recruitment change to teams if you were going to change the numbers from ten to eight; there’s certain players who are explosive players who don’t do big minutes.

“That would be really awkward but if they (RFL) do it, they do it and clubs have pre-season to get their players fit if they need to.

“I won’t have too much of a problem as we’re a pretty fit group; we have players who have a fair bit of durability about them.”

Meanwhile, Castleford will have Man of Steel Gale back in time for Friday’s penultimate Super 8s game against Wakefield Trinity at Wheldon Road.

The England scrum-half missed the Huddersfield victory, that strengthened Tigers’ hold on third place, due to a side problem.

But Powell said: “Luke will be available. He’s come through okay.

“Oli Holmes is going to be a few weeks and Joe Wardle’s not available yet but I thought our back-rowers (Junior Moors and Mike McMeeken) were pretty immense against Huddersfield.

“I’ve just got a decision to make in a couple of positions but we won’t be too far off what we were last week.”

Castleford, already confirmed of a semi-final place, round off their Super 8s campaign at leaders St Helens a week Friday.

Tigers could still finish second and secure a home semi-final but Wigan are three points ahead with two fixtures remaining.