NRL Socks and Boots: Part of the Uniform, or Nah Brah?
by The Socks and Boots Dribbler
On the surface level you could say that this is total dribble. An ‘old man yells out clouds’ if you would. But I can’t be the only one who thinks that in general, socks and boots in the NRL look reallllly amateur. If you look at the on field gear of professional sports around the world, the NFL, NBA and the Premier League, they look much more professional than our beloved National Rugby League.
With our jerseys being plastered in sponsors (that’s a whole other topic which I may dribble about in the future), then with half the players wearing their socks down, every player wearing a different coloured pair of boots and on top of that you have the odd player just wearing different socks, it all looks a bit how ya goin.
In the round 16 ’clash’ between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Wests Tigers, Luciano Leilua was just wearing plain old black socks. Paul Vaughan (of party time fame) also wore black compression socks pulled up, but his Dragons socks pulled down in their substandard win against the Warriors. Now is it a coincidence that both these examples come from DMC clubs? Well that’s for you to decide.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. What a rabble of a club. Luciano Leilua (12), black socks, Joe Ofahengaue (17) with one sock pulled up, one pulled down with white compression sock up and the other 2 in the tackle with their socks down, just the embodiment of a true DMC. Compare that to the NFL and the disparity is enormous.
Socks and boots make up a good percentage of the overall kit for an NRL player. Should the NRL enforce fine to players who don’t pull their socks up? That may seem over the top, but the NFL has a fine system for players who don’t wear their uniforms correctly, which involves their socks being pulled up.
The NFL also has rules around the colour of boots that players can wear. The NFLs rule book specifies that players must wear shoes that are “black, white or any constitutional team colour” or any combination thereof. Call me crazy, but I think that’s something the NRL should implement.
You could easily blow this off as nitpicking. Of course there are more important issues in the game, but with the way people have access to international sport these days, little things like the branding, appearance and the overall ‘aura’ or ‘vibe’ of the competition is becoming more and more important.
Pull ya socks up lads
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