Wayne Bennett leads Nines protest
Andrew Webster
The Daily Telegraph
February 17, 2013 11:00PM
SOME of the biggest names in rugby league - with Wayne Bennett at the front of the queue - have condemned the $2.2 million Super Nines tournament because of the drain on elite players and its threat to the All Stars.
Having received tacit support from club bosses midway through last year, the lucrative plan reaches a critical step when it is presented at Wednesday's chief executives meeting in Sydney. But many coaches are already vehemently opposed to the tournament, which will be played in Auckland a week before the All Stars in early February.
Bennett's greatest fear is the burden on the game's superstars after the World Cup in England and Wales at the end of November.
"We've got the best TV deal we've ever had, and we got that because of what we produce," the Knights coach said.
"If we don't have a proper pre-season, that will impact enormously on all of us. It won't be a proper pre-season anyway, because of the World Cup. January is the most important time of the year for what we do as clubs.
"We'll have to compromise on that as it is now, so this will have consequences. If guys are under-prepared, suddenly you have multiple injuries and guys worn out long before they should be. This isn't life or death to our game. It's not practical in 2014."
Asked about the threat to the All Stars, Bennett - who has coached the NRL side since its inception four years ago - said: "There has been too much invested in that, too much hard work done, to walk away from that. Not when there's interest in it like there is. That's not negotiable."
Souths coach Michael Maguire said the fear of injury meant he would strongly consider stopping his best players from taking part in the Nines. "The vulnerability to injury would be huge," he said. "It's opening it up to disaster. I'm not going to expose my top-line players if they haven't got the work in before those sorts of games. If I've got someone like Greg Inglis or Sam Burgess playing up until the end of November, the last thing I want to do is have them playing at the end of January."
Roosters coach Trent Robinson said the Nines would be a "hindrance", while Panthers general manager Phil Gould was succinct with his thoughts. "Absolutely no interest whatsoever," Gould said.
Rugby league abandoned the World Sevens in 2004 after clubs blocked their best players from taking the field.
The previous season, Dragons captain Trent Barrett suffered a serious knee injury, prompting a furious response from coach Nathan Brown.
Kiwi promoter Dean Lonergan has hatched this concept, but it will be bankrolled by Tourism New Zealand, with $500,000 on offer to the winners.
NRL marketing director Paul Kind says the concept will only proceed if the clubs rubber-stamp it.
"The clubs should come to Wednesday's meeting with a position on whether they want it or not," Kind said. "It can only be successful with their support."
