{"id":444190,"date":"2026-01-29T02:21:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T02:21:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444190\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T02:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T02:21:11","slug":"sharks-star-claims-rule-changes-are-causing-the-nrl-to-lose-appeal-nrl-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/444190\/","title":{"rendered":"Sharks star claims rule changes are causing the NRL to lose appeal – NRL News"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the NRL’s fiercest competitors, Addin Fonua-Blake<\/a>, has issued a major warning to the NRL<\/a> that certain rule changes will result in fewer big-bodied players choosing rugby league.<\/p>\n

With Peter V’Landys and Andrew Abdo trying to create a faster game with fewer stoppages, changes such as the six-again rule have been introduced to create more free-flowing action for fans.<\/p>\n

While this certainly suits smaller and quicker players, Fonua-Blake believes that if the NRL<\/a> continues down this path, players like him will eventually explore other options.<\/p>\n

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

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

“The way they are making the game at the moment, it’s very hard for blokes like us [front-rowers] to stay in the game.<\/p>\n

“They’re taking the collisions out, so in a few more years, there probably won’t be a need for bigger bodies like us in their game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"SYDNEY,SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – AUGUST 03: Addin Fonua-Blake of the Sharks celebrates scoring a try during the round 22 NRL match between Cronulla Sharks and North Queensland Cowboys at Shark Park, on August 03, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Darrian Traynor\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old’s comments come just months after Nelson Asofa-Solomona<\/a> left the NRL<\/a> to pursue a career in boxing, citing that he felt his body was now too big for rugby league.<\/p>\n

With Asofa-Solomona’s decision fresh in the mind, Fonua-Blake has requested the NRL<\/a> sit down with players to re-assess the rules before the sport risks alienating the next generation of big men.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaybe in the near future, the NRL<\/a> needs to sit down with a few of the players and go back through the rules. That wouldn’t hurt them either.” Fonua-Blake added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the NRL’s fiercest competitors, Addin Fonua-Blake, has issued a major warning to the NRL that certain…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-444190","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\/444190","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=444190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/444190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=444190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=444190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=444190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}