Brian Carney explains why draws should return to Super League

Until the 2017 Super League play-offs, we had never seen golden point in a Super League game proper.

It had been used in the Challenge Cup of course as well as in the 2016 Million Pound Game before Luke Gale’s drop goal against St Helens at the Jungle won the first ever golden point fully fledged Super League clash.

Since then it has become common place in Super League with every draw heading to golden point.

We have seen some draws in recent years such as when Hull FC and Warrington Wolves played out a draw in 2021 before Leeds Rhinos and Huddersfield Giants drew over Easter last year.

This rule change was brought in to emulate the NRL but has been somewhat criticised with the general view being there is nothing wrong with a draw.

Recently, former Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves winger Brian Carney who is the leading presenter in Sky Sports’ coverage of Super League emphasised this view point when talking to Talksport.

He said: “They’ve essentially got rid of the draw, they’ve brought in golden point. Many would argue that they should go back to the draw because a small team getting a draw against a big team or a favourite isn’t a bad result for fans.”

He then went on to suggest that the lack of draws compounds the threat around under pressure coaches:

“But essentially yeah it’s binary. We don’t have the luxury of massive pay-outs for coaches who lose their jobs.”