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The Auckland Nines have shown rugby league’s cynical attitude to have consumed otherwise sound minds, because absolutely nothing has to give in the tournament.
Rugby league is a cynical game at best. Grand ambitions are met with grumbling and shouting from those who are still carrying scars from events which took place ages ago and should have been been long healed by now.
Ambition is a dirty word, to extend the game into far flung outposts and strange new ground is met by the same tribal battles.
Something has to give, and nobody wants it to be their slice of the pie.
The concept the Nines may strain players already near breaking point is far from the mark. If the players are so close to snapping, maybe the brutal pre-seasons should be dialled back a notch.
For any referees out there struggling with their sevens and sixes, I suppose a lesson in arithmetic is in order.
Two nine minute halves adds up to one 18 minute game. Three of these 18 minute games add up to only 54 minutes of physical exertion.
An NRL trial match is an eighty minute encounter. If an NRL star played one full trial game, it would be far, far more of an exertion than if they played every second of the six nine minute bursts they’ll experience in the Nines (minus finals).
Craig Bellamy took on his aptly named alter ego ‘Bellyache’ when asked about the Nines late last year.
He said the money was of no concern to him, rather, “What concerns me is what happens after February next year and that’s another tough NRL season with tough games every week.”
In our earlier maths lesson, the surprising-to-some fact about how little game time each team will be involved in, not including finals, in the Nines was brought up. That’s assuming a player will play every minute of every game, which is of course highly unlikely.
Billy Slater’s body wouldn’t struggle with a workload of 40 minutes broke up into five minute bursts. It would be as much of a breeze as a game against the Eels when compared to the Storm pre-season.
To be paralysed by injurious fear is nothing new in rugby league. Most invovled in rugby league check under the beds every night for torn ACLs and ruptured pecs, the boogeymen of rugby league. This is true of coaches especially.
Steve Price is no exception (to call him a coach is a bit of a stretch, but he does hang around a rugby league team).
In November 2013, he called for the NRL to look at banning the gang tackle. Price believed doing so would, “eliminate a lot of twisting and injuries”.
More numbers to crunch here. A rugby league team features 13 players on the field. At the Auckland Nines, there will be four less players, coming out at the eponymous nine.
To commit four players in a tackle will be almost one half of the defensive line, over half if a side is playing with a fullback.
To commit three players in the tackle will be one third of the defensive line, even moreso if a fullback is involved.
It’s a tactic which is doomed to fail in the format. As well as a dramatic decrease in actual playing time, the players will not be involved in the kind of events which coaches feel is the greatest cause of injury, gang tackles.
One player from each top five, 12 from the top 25 and one from the retirement village in the Roosters case is the mandate from the NRL on the players each club must commit.
The Nines this year will be rugby league’s typically tentative early steps but come 2015, the stakes will no doubt rise once somebody sets the bar in 2014.
Any holding back due to the injury boogeyman will leave very embarrassed after being overrun by a committed side.
I for one hope at least one club views these as just the minimum, because anybody who turns up with an extra star and some extra drive will come out on top.
There is a slice of history on offer in Auckland and the clubs who are still being strangled by pain in their own ancient history will miss out on it.
The Auckland Nines will be played on the 15th and 16th of February and will be televised live on Fox Sports. Find out all the details here.
Click here for the full list of squads from the Auckland Nines.
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