The question first hit me when watching the news about a month ago which gave all the trial results, including Penrith playing two trial games on the same weekend at different towns.
They split their team in two!
South Sydney used the ‘return to Redfern’ trial game in February as a big carrot for their membership drive.
However, there were plenty of complaints from fans who were traveling long distances for the ‘historic’ game, only to find out that Souths were basically fielding a second string side.
I noted that in the Andrew Johns autobiography he reckons there are too many games a season (regular season should be 20 games) and that trials should be scrapped completely.
Similarly, the Daily Telegraph’s Josh Massoud wrote an article about how the long and tough NRL season means players will be more likely to play overseas where they can play in a less physically gruelling competition. In this context, he calls for trial games to be scrapped.
On Saturday night I went to the Charity Shield where the game was pretty poor, but the fact that 25,000 people rocked up shows that it does have some meaning to the fans.
The fact that a lot of the games are played in regional areas, promoting the game to people who live hours away from the closest stadium is something the league should take a lot of pride in.
But my question remains: do teams really need trial games?
Would one game (like the Charity Shield) for each team be enough?
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