NRL Nines - Everything you need to know

[unforgiven]

Why is Friday night/Saturday "not properly"?

Because the Fri/Sat night is what has properly led to the rubbish tournament structure that we are seeing.

 

[franklin2323]

Why is Friday night/Saturday "not properly"?

Sport is played (and watched) most frequently on those days as it is. Sure, Sunday would be great too, but the circumstances don't allow for it.

The way some are reacting here, it's as though it's been scheduled for 3am on Wednesday...

4.05 pm Kick off local time. Hardly prime time

 

[Western_Eel]

Why is Friday night/Saturday "not properly"?

Sport is played (and watched) most frequently on those days as it is. Sure, Sunday would be great too, but the circumstances don't allow for it.

The way some are reacting here, it's as though it's been scheduled for 3am on Wednesday...

There's nothing wrong with Friday and Saturday, there's just some people that will find any excuse to whinge

 

[franklin2323]

There's nothing wrong with Friday and Saturday, there's just some people that will find any excuse to whinge

Starting it when locals are still at work is poor planning. Would be for TV reasons

 

[Timmah]

Because the Fri/Sat night is what has properly led to the rubbish tournament structure that we are seeing.

I can't see how making it Sat-Sun would result in a different outcome. They wouldn't want it finishing late on Sunday - TV ratings would be garbage and it would make it difficult to get any teams home that night.

I agree the tournament structure is rubbish but I doubt Sat-Sun instead of Fri-Sat fixes that.

4.05 pm Kick off local time. Hardly prime time

Ok so you suggest what? 7pm local time?

10pm AEDT. Midnight NZDT.

That's the starting time.

1am AEDT and 3am NZDT finishing times.

Seems like a genius idea to me

 

[franklin2323]

I can't see how making it Sat-Sun would result in a different outcome. They wouldn't want it finishing late on Sunday - TV ratings would be garbage and it would make it difficult to get any teams home that night.

I agree the tournament structure is rubbish but I doubt Sat-Sun instead of Fri-Sat fixes that.

Ok so you suggest what? 7pm local time?

10pm AEDT. Midnight NZDT.

That's the starting time.

1am AEDT and 3am NZDT finishing times.

Seems like a genius idea to me

Or you just do Saturday and Sunday as most normal tournaments do..

 

[Version 6]

I can't see how making it Sat-Sun would result in a different outcome. They wouldn't want it finishing late on Sunday - TV ratings would be garbage and it would make it difficult to get any teams home that night.

I agree the tournament structure is rubbish but I doubt Sat-Sun instead of Fri-Sat fixes that.

Ok so you suggest what? 7pm local time?

10pm AEDT. Midnight NZDT.

That's the starting time.

1am AEDT and 3am NZDT finishing times.

Seems like a genius idea to me

Dude. They are literally starting the tournament during business hours.

 

[franklin2323]

Dude. They are literally starting the tournament during business hours.

Exactly this

 

[Timmah]

Or you just do Saturday and Sunday as most normal tournaments do..

Which brings me back to the timing argument about getting 19 teams back across the nullarbor (2 of those even further to Auckland, and one to Townsville) as well as another to London; not to mention dispersing a number of players from both men's and women's to All Stars camp.

Teleporting, as nice as it would be, isn't a thing. 5 hours travel time minimum, not even factoring in hotel transfers, luggage, getting home from airport in Syd/Bne/Mel/Akl etc... from a club perspective would be detrimental.

I'm not saying it's right - I'm simply pointing out why I think they made the decision the way they did.

Dude. They are literally starting the tournament during business hours.

4:10pm isn't it? On a Friday, which many employers let their staff go early, others with plenty of notice can apply for leave etc etc, and even then if they go after work they can still catch a few hours of the action.

If it started at midday or 2pm Friday I'd take your point but it doesn't.

And then you factor in the big value in this will be in the TV viewership, which is largely from east-coast and starts at 7pm.

 

[Perth Red]

Dude. They are literally starting the tournament during business hours.

And on Valentines day lol
Saturday/Sunday would have at least allowed a decent structure so all teams played each other in their group and would have been more accessible for fans attending.

 

[Perth Red]

Which brings me back to the timing argument about getting 19 teams back across the nullarbor (2 of those even further to Auckland, and one to Townsville) as well as another to London; not to mention dispersing a number of players from both men's and women's to All Stars camp.

Teleporting, as nice as it would be, isn't a thing. 5 hours travel time minimum, not even factoring in hotel transfers, luggage, getting home from airport in Syd/Bne/Mel/Akl etc... from a club perspective would be detrimental.

I'm not saying it's right - I'm simply pointing out why I think they made the decision the way they did.

.

You keep saying this but I'm not buying it. Leave Perth Monday Morning your back home by Monday early evening in most cases. That gives you Tues-Sat to prepare for your next friendly on the Sunday. You think they need an extra day to recover from a 5 hour flight just to play a friendly in which squads are rotated?

Even heading to UK they can leave Perth on the direct flight to London on Monday and be tucked up in their hotel room by Tuesday lunch.

 

[franklin2323]

And on Valentines day lol
Saturday/Sunday would have at least allowed a decent structure so all teams played each other in their group and would have been more accessible for fans attending.

You could move it forward a week too if needed

 

[Perth Red]

You could move it forward a week too if needed

Exactly, its hardly rocket science to work out a plan over 7 weeks to feature the 3 premium pre season events in their own reasonable slots
Feb 8th-9th Nines
Feb 15th-16th club friendlies
Feb 23rd All-Stars
Feb 23rd WCC
Feb29/Mar1st club friendlies
Mar 6th-7th off
Mar 12th Rd 1

As it is we ended up with
Nines 14th/15th
Allstars 22nd
WCC 22nd
Club games 22nd & 29th

 

[Dogs Of War]

What I don't get is that we have pools of 4 teams. But each team only plays twice. Thus you don't even play all the teams in your group. If they couldn't fit in all the games, they should have moved it to the weekend so they could.

 

[franklin2323]

Exactly, its hardly rocket science to work out a plan over 7 weeks to feature the 3 premium pre season events in their own reasonable slots
Feb 8th-9th Nines
Feb 15th-16th club friendlies
Feb 23rd All-Stars
Feb 23rd WCC
Feb29/Mar1st club friendlies
Mar 6th-7th off
Mar 12th Rd 1

As it is we ended up with
Nines 14th/15th
Allstars 22nd
WCC 22nd
Club games 22nd & 29th

Much better way and spreads the pre season out too.

 

[Timmah]

You keep saying this but I'm not buying it. Leave Perth Monday Morning your back home by Monday early evening in most cases. That gives you Tues-Sat to prepare for your next friendly on the Sunday. You think they need an extra day to recover from a 5 hour flight just to play a friendly in which squads are rotated?

Even heading to UK they can leave Perth on the direct flight to London on Monday and be tucked up in their hotel room by Tuesday lunch.

I don't think you really understand recovery, training schedules etc. There'll be enough pressure managing turn-arounds during the season, so to maximise the pre-season and reduce injury risk, the more time the better.

Whether you buy it or not is irrelevant, pushing the tournament back a day means Monday is lost and that's one less day ahead of trials - which are all Fri/Sat the following weekend, not Sunday.

That doesn't even account for what would be a cramped schedule for the All Stars participants (fan engagement events you place so much importance on) on top of training leading into the Saturday match; and the same for the Roosters who as I understand would want to be playing a friendly prior to WCC as well as they have in the past, or at the very least an opposed session against an SL club.

What I'm saying isn't unreasonable and I'm not even suggesting I agree with it - they're just fairly obvious and rational reasons as to why the call was made the way it was. I could even be wrong and the NRL could've done market research that suggests WA fans attend more events on Fri/Sat rather than Sun... who knows?

Exactly, its hardly rocket science to work out a plan over 7 weeks to feature the 3 premium pre season events in their own reasonable slots
Feb 8th-9th Nines
Feb 15th-16th club friendlies
Feb 23rd All-Stars
Feb 23rd WCC
Feb29/Mar1st club friendlies
Mar 6th-7th off
Mar 12th Rd 1

As it is we ended up with
Nines 14th/15th
Allstars 22nd
WCC 22nd
Club games 22nd & 29th

As I understand it for this year at least, Perth Glory have bookings at the stadium on Feb 7 and 11 so even if they wanted to have it that weekend, as you suggest on Sat-Sun, the turnaround times would be prohibitive and the time to allow the turf to recover for the soccer on the Tuesday would be less than ideal, so the venue might have said no to that.

Again, just offering possible reasons they might have made decisions that way.

I can't say I agree with a weekend between club friendlies either, if anything teams want some sort of consistency in the pre-season if they are playing multiple games.

 

[Perth Red]

I can't say I agree with a weekend between club friendlies either, if anything teams want some sort of consistency in the pre-season if they are playing multiple games.

Most clubs are only playing two friendlies with their first team squads arent they?

 

[Perth Red]

roncos wrecking ball David Fifita has been begging Anthony Seibold to let him loose in the NRL Nines in Perth next month and his coach has gladly obliged.

Fifita will line up alongside boom forwards Payne Haas and Tom Flegler in the 16-team competition after he showcased why he is so devastating in the format with a dazzling two-try display in Australia’s 25-12 win over New Zealand in their opening World Cup 9s game last year.

"He has been asking me every day 'when are we going to start to train for the Nines?' I said, 'David, we will train for the Nines the week of the Nines'.

"We won’t send too many forwards but David will be one.

Broncos assistant coach Kurt Richards will take control of the side in Perth

https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/01/28/Broncos-to-unleash-David-Fifita-at-NRL-Nines/

 

[Perth Red]

Nines football returned to the rugby league scene in 2014 after a 10-year hiatus with the four years of Auckland Nines unveiling some superstars and creating lasting memories.

After another two-year break in 2018-19, the club Nines are back, in Perth this time, and as we look ahead to the start of the 2020 action NRL.com has taken a look back at the four fast and furious years of the Auckland Nines.

https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/01/30...-stars-unearthed-over-four-years-at-auckland/

 

[Perth Red]

Former Titans fullback Michael Gordon has put his rugby league retirement on hold, returning to the Gold Coast’s playing ranks for a one-off cameo at the NRL Nines at Perth’s HBF Park on February 14-15.

Gordon retired at the end of the 2019 season after 261 NRL games, including 36 for the Titans in two years on the Gold Coast.

https://www.nrl.com/news/2020/01/21/gordon-to-return-for-nines/