Elliott wants nines squads to increase in size

Shaun Johnson and the Warriors thank the crowd after losing the semi final match between the New Zealand Warriors and the Queensland Cowboys. Photo / Getty Images.

The large injury list from last weekend's Auckland Nines has been identified as one of the downsides of the inaugural tournament and Warriors coach Matt Elliott thinks increasing the size of squads from 16 to 20 might help alleviate the risk of injuries at future tournaments.

The Warriors were one of the few clubs to emerge unscathed from the weekend's action. Cowboys fullback Lachlan Coote (knee), Manly's David Williams (knee) and Souths' Luke Keary (torn pectoral muscle) all suffered serious injuries that will put them out for some time and others like Jarrod Mullen, Todd Carney and David Stagg are struggling to make the start of the NRL season.

Injuries are a part of any sport and occur in pre-season games but NRL coaches might be weary of sending their best players to the nines for fear of injury. They are still contractually bound to send one of their top-five earners and 12 of their top 25.

One of the reasons the sevens tournament was scrapped in 2004 was because of the high number of injuries.

Elliott believes increasing squad sizes from 16 to 20 would help alleviate that. It would allow coaches to rest four players for a game and also bring in a strategic element around when to rest key players.

"My one suggestion is that they need to allow teams to have bigger squads, so you can rest four players at a time,'' Elliott said. "As soon as you do that you diminish the risk of injury straight away.

"It would be a better spectacle, because in the last few games [the players] just looked completely knackered and it was so noticeable in our last game, there was just nothing there in a few of them.

"It would be better for the fans because you want the final to be the best game. You'd be a bit more strategic as a coach about who you'd leave out, but that would be my only recommendation.

"It was a fantastic event for rugby league and for the city, so I've got nothing but superlatives.''

Other ideas have been floated, like spreading the tournament over three days, moving the tournament to earlier in the season before the NRL trial games and trying to tinker with the schedule so the top two teams don't play four games on the final day.

But that presents logistical challenges, not least of all scheduling, and it would be a mistake for teams to play all three pool games on the opening day and risk seeing teams eliminated on the first day.

The NRL are open to expanding the competition to include UK Super League teams but that also puts pressure on scheduling.

Next year's tournament is likely to be held on the final weekend of January because Eden Park is unavailable from February 1 for the Cricket World Cup.

The Auckland Nines was deemed an overwhelming success on many levels and it's seen as one way to grow the game. Nines will be played at this year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow as an exhibition sport and there are hopes it will be upgraded to full-sport status by the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

This year's tournament will involve under-19 teams and Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, England, Wales, Scotland, South Africa, Canada and Jamaica are reported to have so far confirmed they will be playing.