NRL eye balance of speed and style in 2022

How fast is too fast and how big of a scoreline is too big?

It's a question the NRL must ask themselves after two years of point-scoring records, blowouts and five months of club feedback.

Last year was a season of week-to-week highs or never-ending lows, depending which team you supported.

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For a competition that always prides itself on any team being able to win on its day, it was not the case for 10 clubs.

Six points separated the breakaway top six teams on the ladder from everyone else, while it was 18 points from first to seventh.

Good games became great when the best teams met in the finals, but the average margin through the regular season ballooned to an 86-year high of 18.3 points per game.

On first look, only one change has been made to alter gameplay this year.

Penalties will now be given for offsides and ruck infringements when teams are coming out of their own end, stopping teams from risking breaching early in sets with minimal punishment.

"This one wasn't about trying to retard the speed of the game or address blowouts," NRL head of football Graham Annesley told AAP.

"It wasn't about trying to slow the speed of the game or address blowouts.

"The objective is still to make our game as exciting and open as possible so fans get entertainment."

As far as Annesley is concerned it's too early to judge if a by-product of this is a slower stop-start game, given the extra stoppages for penalties.

But he does hope for a closer year.

"It's never just down to one single factor," Annesley added.

"Perhaps teams didn't cope too well with the changes that were made last year and this year will be better for it.

"We might see a natural adjustment where the