{"id":441635,"date":"2026-01-27T22:49:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T22:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/441635\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T22:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T22:49:09","slug":"cronulla-sharks-star-addin-fonua-blake-warns-nrl-over-rules-changes-bigger-bodies-forwards-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/441635\/","title":{"rendered":"Cronulla Sharks star Addin-Fonua Blake warns NRL over rules changes, bigger bodies, forwards, preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Addin Fonua-Blake has issued a stern warning that rugby league could become unattractive to the bigger-bodied players coming through as the NRL shifts to accommodate smaller players.<\/p>\n

One of the best front-rowers in the competition, the Tongan national captain fears bigger players may opt against playing rugby league and instead turn towards other sports as the playing style continues to change.<\/p>\n

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This comes as the NRL has made a plethora of rule changes in recent years to speed up the game, including the six-again rule, which has resulted in fewer stoppages and more free-flowing action for fans.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like they [the NRL] changed the rules so many times to accommodate the smaller player, but it\u2019s starting to rub out the bigger players,\u201d Fonua-Blake told foxsports.com.au.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst the game is interesting when it\u2019s faster, the fans do love seeing the big boys running straight or doing those collisions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way they are making the game at the moment, it\u2019s very hard for blokes like us [front-rowers] to stay in the game. They\u2019re taking the collisions out, so in a few more years, there probably won\u2019t be a need for bigger bodies like us in their game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Addin Fonua-Blake gives his opinion on the state of the game and its impact on bigger bodies.Source: FOX SPORTS<\/p>\n

The comments from Fonua-Blake come after former Melbourne Storm and New Zealand Kiwis front-rower Nelson Asofa-Solomona examined whether the sport is built for players of his size anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe I\u2019m too tall for the sport as it is now. You look at players now, they\u2019re a bit small. Faster and fitter,\u201d Asofa-Solomona told <\/a>foxsports.com.au<\/a> earlier this month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo perhaps I\u2019m just not made for rugby league anymore. Maybe my body isn\u2019t made for the sport.\u201d<\/p>\n

NAS & Burgess clash post fight! | 00:16<\/p>\n

A member of the NRL\u2019s 200-game club, Fonua-Blake called upon rugby league officials to sit down with some of the game\u2019s players to help go back through the rules before the sport becomes unappealing to the next generation.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen bigger boys see what it is to play NRL, nowadays for some of them it\u2019s not really appealing to them\u2026they\u2019d rather play sports like union,\u201d Fonua-Blake added.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe in the near future, the NRL needs to sit down with a few of the players and go back through the rules. That wouldn\u2019t hurt them either.\u201d<\/p>\n

Questioned about how he has adjusted to the playing style over the years as the league shifts to more smaller, faster and leaner middle forwards, the Sharks enforcer stated that dieting and recovery were the key.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to understand that you can\u2019t be as heavy as we were back in the day. You could get away with being over 120 kilograms back then but nowadays you can\u2019t so definitely dieting and recovery,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the future, they\u2019re adding in teams and with all of the travel and more games in the calendar you have to honestly start looking after yourself otherwise your body will just give up on you.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Addin Fonua-Blake has issued a stern warning that rugby league could become unattractive to the bigger-bodied players coming…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-441635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nrl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-national-rugby-league","tag-nationalrugbyleague","tag-nrl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=441635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}