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Rugby league’s version of Twenty20 cricket, the Auckland Nines, kicks off this weekend with all 16 NRL teams competing.
The two day event will be played at Auckland’s iconic venue, Eden Park, where so far 92,000 tickets have been sold according to a Sydney Morning Herald report.
It is also a lucrative tournament for all competing NRL clubs, with the prize pool totalling AUD$2.25 million.
The winner of the event pockets $370,000, more then what the NRL Minor Premiers receive after 26 rounds ($100,000), with the runners-up winning $240,000, semi-finalists $165,000 and quarter-finalists $130,000.
Teams that get bundled out in the group stages will receive $110,000 – not bad for simply turning up – while costs associated with travel, accommodation and meals have all been covered by the tournament organisers.
The format of the NRL Auckland Nines is that every match will have two nine-minute halves and will be contested by nine players a side on the field.
There are four groups of four, with each team playing three matches. The top two in each group progress to the knock-out stages, which is a progression of quarter-finals, followed by semi-finals and the final.
It all sounds very exciting – a perfect event to have in the NRL pre-season.
Auckland is also an ideal location. The climate will be tolerable compared to the harsh Australian summer, and it gives a great opportunity to promote the code in New Zealand.
The only sour note with this new event coming on board and taking up a weekend in pre-season is that the NRL were forced to scrap the NRL/Indigenous All Stars for one year.
According to the NRL, the reason for the cancellation was due to the fact that NRL players were still involved in the Rugby League World Cup in late November last year, therefore giving the representative players a reprieve.
For the NRL/Indigenous All Stars concept to work, it needs the big name representative players to be made available. Hence the term “All Stars”.
There are critics out there who believe that the NRL/Indigenous All Stars was shafted in favour of the Auckland Nines tournament due to the prize money that is on offer to all NRL clubs.
You can’t fault the NRL clubs for supporting the Auckland Nines. The prize money available can help many a club’s bottom line.
The NRL/Indigenous All Stars concept first started in 2010 with the Indigenous All Stars team winning the inaugural match, and it does tick a lot of boxes.
It promotes awareness around indigenous issues and celebrates indigenous culture, while NRL players who have an indigenous heritage are proud to take part in the Indigenous All Stars side.
The majority of NRL fans, including this author, support this. This concept is more then just a game.
The only problem with the concept is the apparent lack of purpose and meaning for the NRL All Stars team.
Whenever you watch an NRL match or any other sporting contest, there must be an incentive and meaning for both sides. In this concept, the passion and meaning is there for only one side, the Indigenous team.
The NRL All Star players play and support the cause, but they would be nowhere near as passionate as the Indigenous side.
There’s also an overriding feeling that the majority of league fans really don’t care who wins the All Stars game. Therefore this concept does have the potential to lose interest over a period of time.
But maybe there needs to be a tweak in the concept by dumping the NRL All Stars side in favour of a Pacific Island All Stars team featuring players from Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, Cook Islands and Samoa who represented their respective countries at last year’s World Cup.
A match-up of Indigenous All Stars v Pacific Island All Stars is more worthwhile. At least you’ll see passion from both teams, and you could promote causes and issues surrounding the Pacific Island nations.
If I had to choose between the Nines and the All Stars, at this stage I would pick the Auckland Nines.
Chances are that every NRL fan would have a vested interest in it, whereas with the NRL/Indigenous All Stars game this may not be the case.
Both concepts can be fitted into the scheduling in the month of February, along with NRL trials and high profile pre-season matches like the World Club Challenge and Charity Shield.
The Indigenous All Stars match does have its place, but it needs some refinement. The Auckland Nines not only has potential to be a great concept, but it could also help the growth of rugby league.
And my tip for the Nines? New Zealand Warriors to make the most of their home ground advantage.
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