KEY POINTS:
The NZRL has tabled plans to play the Anzac test later in the year and in an international window so players can be released from club duty the weekend before the test.
New Zealand has traditionally struggled in Anzac tests, largely because of its inability to call on a full-strength side. The 30-6 loss on Friday night was the seventh in eight fixtures.
The largely one-sided nature of the loss, on top of even more dominant performances by Australia in previous Anzac tests, has called the fixture's credibility into question.
There is widespread belief that the Tri Nations is an overwhelming success but Anzac tests aren't working in their current format.
Acting NZRL chairman Andrew Chalmers has raised the possibility of playing the match in July, after State of Origin, and ensuring clubs release players the weekend before.
The plan is likely to draw resistance from powerful NRL clubs who already have to cope without their Origin players for three weeks a season. But it is necessary if international rugby league is to be the game's pinnacle.
Although Australian media reported that New Zealand will play Australia in Sydney on May 9, 2008, this is yet to be confirmed.
The topic of the Anzac test's future will be a key issue at the international board meeting in two months and Chalmers believes he has the support of his international counterparts.
"[Moving the Anzac test] is a sensible outcome given everyone's constraints," he said. "In previous discussions with the ARL, they have echoed the same sentiments of trying to fit in a proper international window for representative football where the same stand-down provisions apply [as in State of Origin]."
The Anzac test, whenever it is played, has to remain for financial reasons because the Kiwis are the only revenue earner for the NZRL. They made roughly $1 million from the 2005 Tri Nations and while last year's accounts showed a $300,000 surplus, it hid a $650,000 deficit on domestic programmes.
The NZRL has repeatedly forgone its right to host the game because of the additional money made by playing it across the ditch.
Generally the NZRL gets a six-figure sum from a game in Brisbane, and Friday night's crowd of 35,241 means they can expect another one this time around. That drops to a five-figure sum when a game is played in New Zealand.
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The NZRL is adamant Brent Webb is eligible to play for the Kiwis despite having relocated to the UK.
Australian-born Webb qualified for New Zealand in 2004 under the three-year residency rule but reports last week suggested Webb might now be ineligible because he has moved to Leeds.
Chalmers pointed to laws that state a player is eligible for a country for which he has gained senior international honours in any sport.
The issue is one the international board is keen to address.
"The question of eligibility will come under scrutiny leading into this World Cup because we want to maintain credibility," Chalmers said.
