Rugby league kickoff regulations may be modified to lessen collisions, according to the NRL.

• St George’s Moses Suli concussed on first play of Anzac Day game
• League says it’s ‘desperately’ trying to reduce head impacts

The NRL says it cannot rule out change as requests to address the high-velocity collisions in traditional kick-offs rise, putting a rugby league mainstay in jeopardy.

On the opening play of the Roosters-St George game on Anzac Day, Moses Suli, the center for St George, suffered a concussion after Jared Waerea-Hargreaves, who was running, collided with the Dragons’ defensive line at full speed.

Graham Annesley, the head of elite football for the NRL, acknowledged that collisions “are a big part of our game,” but he also noted that despite their beloved status in rugby league, long kickoffs were not immune to reform.

He advised against making absolute statements about anything as the game changes with time and is not the same as it was 20 or 100 years ago.

“The [Australian rugby league] commission and the administration have player safety as a top priority.”

Expert sports physician Nathan Gibbs cited the Suli event as a prime illustration of the dangers associated with unintentional head trauma.

He told the Daily Telegraph, “This can happen when players have 20 to 30 meters to reach maximum speed before crashing into each other with no deviation intended.”

“The chance of getting hurt is high. So, outlawing the play is a simple method to lower the number of injuries.

However, some people consider the deep kick-off tradition to be impenetrable.

Luke Lewis, a former Kangaroo, thinks a crucial aspect of the game was seeing a forward break from his own line and go a long way to meet the pursuing defenders.

He said to ABC Sport on Sunday, “I’ll never watch rugby league again if we get rid of the kick-off.”

After going through a similar argument in previous years, the NFL changed the rules for the upcoming season to slow down the pace at which defenders meet a kickoff returner.

While Annesley acknowledged the value of the physical competition to the sport, he also insisted that player safety comes first.

“The commission is very focused on and we’re focused on operations, so what we’re desperately trying to do is try and reduce the impact on heads,” he said.

This season, the NRL changed its restart regulations to incentivize teams to kick the ball farther after kickoffs and dropouts.

This season, a play the ball penalty—a lighter sanction meant to lessen the possibility of handing up territory or points—will be used instead of a penalty if a restart crosses the sideline or stops short of 10 meters.

While there was a “benefit” to some collisions being less, according to Annesley, the main motivation behind the rule change was to increase the number of competitions in the sport.

“We were hoping for an unstructured element of the game, and they can create it,” he stated.

Naturally, one beneficial byproduct would be to lessen a few of these large, high-intensity collisions.

Recent years have seen a rise in short drop-outs as teams choose to risk losing the ball and try to recover instead of having to settle for defending a set on their line.

However, they still prefer to go long at kickoffs and usually only use the short option when trying to win the game toward the end of the game.

According to Annesley, the short drop-out has become a standard aspect of the game, and he anticipates coaches to use the lower risk associated with kickoffs more frequently.

“Although we haven’t seen many of those, I do believe that as the season progresses, their numbers will rise,” he remarked.