{"id":671868,"date":"2026-05-15T04:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/671868\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T04:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T04:39:14","slug":"storm-stars-admit-they-no-longer-enjoy-watching-nrl-amid-rule-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/671868\/","title":{"rendered":"Storm stars admit they no longer enjoy watching NRL amid rule changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Melbourne Storm<\/a> stars Cameron Munster<\/a> and Jahrome Hughes<\/a> have questioned whether the NRL’s latest rule interpretations are beginning to damage the game, with both admitting they no longer enjoy watching Rugby League<\/a> the way they once did.<\/p>\n

The comments come amid a difficult season for Melbourne Storm<\/a>, who are enduring their worst start to a campaign since entering the competition, sitting 15th on the ladder with just three wins and seven losses.<\/p>\n

Munster was blunt in his assessment of the current state of the game, suggesting the NRL<\/a> had unnecessarily altered a product that was already working.<\/p>\n

“I think the rules were perfect two years ago or a year ago,” Munster said on the 167 podcast.<\/p>\n

“What’s not broken, don’t fix it, you know? That’s my personal opinion.”<\/p>\n

Hughes echoed the concerns, admitting the constant rule interpretations and inconsistencies have made the game frustrating to watch, even as a player.<\/p>\n

“I’m seeing stuff, and I go, ‘Why is that a six again?’ and then I see something and go, Why is that not?’. I get too technical about it in my head,” Hughes said.<\/p>\n

“For me as a player personally, I can’t really watch (Rugby League<\/a>). I’ve never been a massive watcher anyway, but now it’s just that I make it too technical in my head, and I start picking things out that I shouldn’t be, so I can’t really enjoy it.”<\/p>\n

Munster then expanded further on Hughes’ point, revealing even he now struggles to properly engage with matches outside of playing them himself.<\/p>\n

“Yeah its obviously a product that the NRL<\/a> want to do, and I’m probably with you, Hughesy. I’ll probably have the footy on all the time and used to love watching it, but now it’s just in the background. I just sit there, I don’t even watch it, just turn it on,” he said.<\/p>\n

The Queensland captain also expressed concern over the possibility of one-sided finals matches later this season, fearing the speed of the modern game could lead to blowout scorelines rather than close contests.<\/p>\n

“I just don’t want to see finals this year go to blowout games, and it’s just not tight, you know.”<\/p>\n

“But it’s the product they want to do, they want to play touch footy, so yeah, all the best to them.”<\/p>\n

Hughes finished by suggesting the faster pace of the game is beginning to phase out a certain style of player altogether, referencing former Storm enforcer Nelson Asofa-Solomona<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Yeah its sort of like sad,” Hughes said.<\/p>\n

“Like our old teammate, like Nelson, those types of players are just getting washed out of the game because it’s just too quick now.”<\/p>\n

The comments from Munster and Hughes are likely to spark wider debate across the game, with two of the NRL’s premier playmakers openly admitting they no longer enjoy watching the sport as much as they once did.<\/p>\n

For a competition built around entertainment and fan engagement, it raises serious questions over whether the game’s current direction and rule interpretations are beginning to alienate not just supporters, but the players themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Melbourne Storm stars Cameron Munster and Jahrome Hughes have questioned whether the NRL’s latest rule interpretations are beginning…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299256,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[568],"tags":[64,63,761,762,158,85],"class_list":["post-671868","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\/671868","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=671868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/671868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=671868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=671868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=671868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}