Now that the second year of nines is done and dusted, you can see some developments happening.
Prize money as i mentioned, is a area where creating a big pool of money excites the good players, like the Johnsons, the Reynolds and Mullins.
Reading between the lines, the interest from Melbourne and Brisbane cities to steal this event will allow the prize money to rise.
I gave the best example of how a event can grow by upping the prize money. Our very own Melbourne Cup has grown into a world event with the prize money raised according to the status of the event.
The same should happen with the nines event.
I still think they need to share the event around, either by increasing this event to 3 weekends and get rid of useless trails, and make the world club challenge more of a event. "kill two birds with the one stone",,,or,,, just rotate this one event amounst all the big cities. So Auckland, then Melbourne, then Sydney, then Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.
It will take longer to get around to all the big cities, but at least it will be shared.
There is now no question, this event is huge, and very very successful, as the union sevens event now is struggling as the nines has won the public's attention in New Zealand.
The World Club Challenge is the next major event, which is quickly selling out.
Things are changing in league. Even this blog site is a bit crusty and needs a shake-up.