NRL needs a pre-season tournament
As we move towards the third week of NRL trial matches in 2007; the question needs to be asked – why have so many trial games?
While one or two practice games prior to season kickoff to at least confirm player combinations, fitness and test playing strategies makes sense. Why do NRL teams look at playing 3 or 4 trial games?
The chance of injury in the modern game is so high, it seems ridiculous to subject squad members to such risk in these meaning less games.
Most teams already realize this, and generally only field their top players in 1 or 2 of the trial games, so why then do we even play the early trial games where 2nd tier players form the basis of the team?
A lot of comparisons have been made lately between the NRL and AFL. Most notably by Sydney Morning Herald columnist Phil Gould. Most of these comparisons relate to the general day to day running of the NRL and also how marketing and grass roots development is taking place to ensure the game grows rapidly and improves year on year.
One of the NRL directives is to play as many trial games in the bush, to ensure the game reaches supporters in all corners – as it stands today, the people in the bush get to see a single trial game where 26 players they never heard of battle it out. These people want to see Andrew Johns and Darren Lockyer take the field and experience true NRL.
The only way to improve the pre-season format I believe is to implement a knock-out tournament. A tournament with a large prize money bonus for the winner and a respected trophy to add to the leagues club cabinet. Incentives such as these will ensure teams field their best players and realistically everybody wins:
- Clubs get warm-up games before NRL kick-off
- Fans in the bush can get to see games with meaning
- Additional TV broadcast opportunities (local/international)
- A final in
For those that can remember far enough back; the Challenge Cup used to be a pre-season Rugby League tournament that worked extremely well. Games drew big crowds and TV audiences and the title was respected and chased by all clubs.
Maybe it’s time to go back to the future.
