It feels like the NRL is trying to transform itself, as quickly as possible, into the AFL.
That's the only conclusion from the new television rights deal, which puts the international game on the lowest rung of priorities. Instead of making more room for test matches, there is now even less. Instead of growing the international game - as NRL chief Dave Smith has talked about - it's now likely to shrink.
Sure, the NRL is engaged in a hyper-competitive battle with the AFL in Australia, one that is hard to comprehend in this country. The AFL dominates in four states and has made considerable inroads in New South Wales and Queensland. But it doesn't mean the NRL needs to emulate the other code, where clubs are everything and the representative game doesn't really exist.
Surely there is room for both. The scrapping of the Anzac test - and the shoe-horning of Pacific tests into a State of Origin weekend where they will get completely overshadowed - just doesn't make sense. Neither does the "new" international window at the end of the NRL season, a time when players take time off and have minor or major surgeries.
If an Origin weekend was deemed absolutely necessary by the broadcasters, a better solution would be to cut the NRL season by two rounds (meaning every club loses one home game) and retain the Anzac test weekend. After all, if there is space for the expanded international club challenge - a meaningless competition - there is room for everything.
