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NRL players aren't overworked, they're overpaid

Roar Guru
28th October, 2014
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Darius Boyd named at full-back (Source: AFP PHOTO / GLYN KIRK)
Roar Guru
28th October, 2014
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1126 Reads

Much has been made of the withdrawals from the Four Nations tournament, not just from Australia but also from the New Zealand side.

Held the year after the World Cup, we have more than usual number of withdrawals, 17 of them from the Kangaroos.

Today Show hosts Ben Fordham and Karl Stefanovic suggested that some players were exaggerating their injuries, which drew quite the response from Matt Scott.

Rooster players Jared Waerea-Hargreaves and Roger Tuivasa-Sheck were up-front, saying burnout was their reason for missing the tournament rather than injury. The ever-quotable Willie Mason accused the Roosters of telling the players not to play rather than the players making up their own minds.

The opening matches of the Four Nations provided the 1994 Kangaroo tour members an opportunity to gather and celebrate the 20-year anniversary of the last long-term tour.

The ’94 Kangaroos featured some true greats including Laurie Daley, Alfie Langer, Brad Fittler, Ricky Stuart, Steve Walters, and a young Steve Menzies and Wendell Sailor The tour was captained for a third time by the great Mal Meninga, who believes the Four Nations should have been rescheduled for 2015.

These longer tours featured 28 member squads and by the ’94 tour the itineraries had been cut to only 18 games (they were as high as 38 back in the 60s) compared to 3 or 4 in the Four Nations. The tourists would play club sides as well as regionals and junior reps.

Tours were only four years but other years featured more than one-off Anzac Tests and the British would often return the favour by making long-term tours of Australia. In the 1992 British Lions tour, their last, the Lions played club sides Illawarra, Canberra, Parramatta and the Newcastle Knights.

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On the 1986 tour, the great Terry Lamb featured in all 20 tour games – that’s almost a full NRL season. When interviewed about the reunion, Sailor said he would have played in all 18 if possible. Despite this, Wendell commented that today’s players are over worked.

But is this the truth? Seasons were just as long back in the Kangaroo tour days and teams played in mid-week cups as well.

The big difference is the amount of time spent training, and the pressure upon highly paid coaches and players to perform. Everyone seems more accountable these days, coaches have fitness staff and professionals who do not let players have an offseason. The gruelling pre-season starts so much earlier, with the Brisbane Broncos starting on November 5 under the guidance of Wayne Bennett.

The game is not significantly faster or harder than it was in 94 (Beaver managed to play all the way up to last year) – just check some YouTube videos and you will agree. Knockout comps such as the Panasonic Cup were ceased in 1989. This is unfortunate as in England the Challenge Cup still exists, providing fans and players with a second chance of glory and excitement.

I remember as a child when Paul Vautin, Peter Sterling and the legendary Chicka Ferguson, among others, would go play in the offseason in the UK before the seasons in the UK changed.

If players are so over-worked, why are 19 of the 21 players to play 300 games from post 1998? Basically, as the players have got paid more, the international level players are more valuable to their teams and their coach’s survival. If the ’94 Kangaroos could go on an 18-match tour, surely the players of today are able to play four in a tournament that helps spread the game of rugby league? It can be the making of rising stars and sustains an advantage of its biggest rival, AFL.

Unfortunately we will never see another tour like 1994, the clubs will never allow it.

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If the players need rest, why don’t we give them a longer off-season? You can understand how players can get mentally stale if they start sprint and running training in November, only one month after the grand final. A viable international scene makes the game bigger, and generates revenue, helping everyone in the process, not just NRL coaches.

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