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How did you treat the Nines tournament? One of my mates was filthy because it was not shown on free-to-air, while a few others brushed it altogether.
Me? I actually forgot it was on as I did some serious tending to the organic veggie garden on my Little Mountain Farm.
It wasn’t until I came in for a very late lunch that I realised it was on.
All of those attitudes were represented across the clubs involved – first by their selections, and some by the way they played.
Souths were deserved winners as they were into it big time. The Sharks hard-working players’ effort in the final to defend for five continuous minutes on their goal-line was total commitment. They would have been deserved winners, having selected a solid core of their NRL top 25 to have a full-on crack at it.
Some others seemed confused. Manly included Daly Cherry-Evans and Kieran Foran but then had way too many complete rookies, so looked out of it pretty much from the start. Likewise Brisbane, who nearly messed it all up by making the playoffs!
In any case there needs to be a better plan than the laissez faire attitude some clubs displayed by their selections.
The overall NRL schedule is a bigger issue, as I referred to last week, and what place the Nines and Indigenous game have in the future should be keenly debated.
But if the Nines is included the NRL clubs need to support it fully.
The event provides a wonderful opportunity for rugby league to announce its new season with a festival of footy. With Auckland funding it all with great sponsorship support, our remotest outpost gets a unique way of exposing rugby union-mad New Zealanders to a great selection of the best players in every club up close all at once.
The organisers have done enough to remove the scary aspects of the original sevens. In those days the squads were smaller, with no emergency players or rotational opportunities. I remember at Parra when in ’97 we lost prop Chris King, brother of Matty, in the opening minutes of the first game to serious injury. That meant all of the other guys had to dig even deeper with one man down for the rest of the weekend.
It was too much overload too early in the season. Coaches were frightened off from risking anyone.
Thankfully that’s all gone and coaches should be encouraged strongly to use the tournament as part of the players’ preseason preparation.
Other sports too have looked down their noses at shortened forms of their games initially, but the Big Bash certainly grabbed the casual cricket follower’s interest in 2015.
If our footy needs a shake up of structures and entertainment packages then Nines done well might fit the bill, but a bright, positive attitude from all who make a living (and some) from footy will be necessary to get maximum value.
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