Dimitri, I saw that comment from the Libber - while he is a champ, it was a pretty facile way of looking at it. The idea that we want our best players playing rep football is a given. Every Roo tour dropout has cited injuries - do you think some are overstating the seriousness? I doubt it because those players will be forgotten (out of sight, out of mind) when it comes to future rep matches.
Adding a clause as you've suggested wouldn't actually do much ot change things.
Tamazoid said:
I agree 100%.
In fact the ESL and NRL seasons should both be reduced. Soccer manages to have a huge club scene as well as Internationals.
Sounds good in theory but NASA will terraform Venus before the NRL reduces the length of the season - the reality is that all clubs are tight financially as it is - dropping a few competition rounds will reduce income by hundreds of thousands of dollars which clubs cannot afford. Plus, some clubs will complain that they get a harder draw than others because they play the top teams more than others. Given that, it would buy the favour of the NRL clubs to concentrate on getting full home and away rounds of regular season competition - which, incidentally, soccer has.
If the clubs are happy with their season, then they will be slightly more likely to get players released for international matches. Given there is currently either little funding or talent to sustain current number let alone add a new team, it means the comp should reduce by one.
